Catalyst Array
by Snow Leopard Pasha
Summary: When performing the transmutation on Father to recover Al's body, Ed blacks out and wakes up in a wasteland near a metal building he doesn't recognize. The first thing he realizes is that he can't use alchemy in the dead zones around those metal buildings. With no Al, his new purpose becomes a crusade to save the world and his new friends! No pairings, part 1 of 2, R&R!
1. 01-Materia

**A/N:** First, since I forget this in almost every story I first post: I don't own either Final Fantasy VII or Fullmetal Alchemist, Brotherhood version/manga or otherwise! And, I'm not making money off this story! (If I was, I wouldn't be posting it here! :D) I'm also never going to bother saying this again, since it's not going to change between one chapter and the next-I will never own FFVII or FMA:B/manga. :P

This is a new story I came up with after reading another crossover fic where the Materia functioned on the same alchemic arrays as Ed was used to—but for some reason, even when Ed found out he couldn't use his own alchemy around Reactors, the author didn't have him start using Materia, which completely didn't make sense to me.

As such, despite the similarity in Materia/alchemy functionality, all the rest of my story is completely different, and takes place starting July 6th, 0000 (before Genesis gets injured and before Cloud talks to Tifa at the well in Nibelheim) based on the FFVII Compilation timeline. It also encompasses data from the entire Compilation (Before Crisis, Crisis Core, FFVII, Advent Children (very, very little currently, since I don't even think Denzel has been born yet), and Dirge of Cerberus), so took a huge amount of research, despite my having played a few of the games.

I've changed very little pre-0000, but I'll leave an A/N at the start of the chapter to mention a specific change which is pre-Ed's arrival in 0000. The Materia has been stabilized to the FFVII version in the original game, though with modification, as I have no idea if the Materia functions the same way in the remake, and the only change I've currently made is that Fort Condor has a Reactor leak. I tried to keep purchase prices which made sense accurate to FFVII's game prices as well, but there's a note at the end of this chapter about selling prices.

When I originally wrote this many months (over a year?) ago, I had been basing Ed's known money system on actual European money denominations (their version of cents/dollars). A reader later pointed out to me that they actually use a penny system like Japan/Gaia, but I've chosen not to change that in this story. And their money would look different regardless. A different reader questioned the gil used in FF games and how I presented it in this story. To clarify: in FFVII, gil appears as silver coins with a hole through the middle, and there are coins up to 1000 gil with bills for denominations above that. However, I'm leaving my current system for them intact in this story, because I still feel bills above 100 gil are more feasible with the amount of gil it's possible to collect.

Also note: Because someone has posted an anonymous review which just said 'too ooc', I feel I should mention that posting a review like that without any useful data about who/what and why is completely pointless, so if you're going to post a review (anonymously or otherwise), give me the details so I know what the Hell you're talking about! If a reviewer doesn't give appropriate details, the review is summarily discarded as a person just being an ass for the sake of doing so.

Anyway, sorry for the long intro author's note, and on with the story!

Materia

The sixteen-year-old boy opened golden eyes and stared up at the sky above him, rather confused about where he was and how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was the Alchemist's Gate opening while he'd been in the process of defeating 'Father' (because he had effectively performed a human transmutation using the being as the source of energy), then nothing. His body ached, and he knew some of it originated from the battle injuries he'd gotten, but the majority of it felt like it was from some kind of full-body muscle and tendon strain, not even 'exhaustion' from the overuse of his muscles. His apparent change of locale also bothered him because he definitely wasn't in Central anymore, with no idea where he was or how he'd gotten there.

Since his usual braid was digging into his back in a progressively uncomfortable way, he slowly sat up as he took stock of his condition outside the injuries and muscle strain. Golden bangs fell to either side of his face, where he had a couple scratches, while the majority of his hair was pulled back in a basic braid falling to between his shoulder blades, and his slender, toned body showed a fair bit of battle damage. During the battle, the upper right side of his black, sleeveless top had been torn so it hung down on that side, showing wicked scars around the shoulder joint, but his black leather pants were in good shape and his klunky, black leather army boots weren't damaged beyond scuffs. A touch to his left knee joint and down his shin assured him that his automail leg was still there and intact, unlike his right arm, which his brother had transmuted back into his original flesh-and-blood one...in exchange for his soul. The most severe injury he had was from where the metal rod had gone through his left arm. Given how 'little' injury he had, he felt comfortable pushing himself to his feet so he could look around and get a better idea of where he was—and had to sigh in irritation as he realized he was still...vertically challenged.

A glance at his surroundings told him one thing: he honestly had no idea where he was. It was barren, lifeless, brown, rugged, rocky, and had plenty of sheer or steep-sided plateaus ranging from one foot above the ground to ten feet above, and the place he currently stood was on a small space of level ground near the top of a hill capped by some kind of huge machine or factory-like thing. Al was definitely not with him (nor anyone else, for that matter), and he didn't think panicking would help him find them or figure out where he was.

Something glowing nearby drew his eyes to a narrow trail of dark green not-quite-slime meandering down from the metal monstrosity on the hill and continuing down the hill past him and out of sight. The green stuff was clearly a leak, and probably not a good one, but what puzzled him the most was the glowing green object about the size of a large marble which was sitting in the slimy stuff. He noticed there were several up and down the trail, and of the ones he could see, there were two he noted which were yellow and blue respectively, rather than the green of the rest.

Taking the few steps to the place where the nearest glowing, green orb was, he knelt and carefully lifted it out of the darker green liquid. However, as soon as he touched it, knowledge began assimilating into his mind against his will, so he dropped it onto the ground and slowly sat cross-legged in front of it as he thought about what had just happened. The orb itself was nothing special, being in a soothing, pale green much healthier than the gunk it had been sitting in, but when he'd touched it...

Reaching forward again, he just rested the tip of one finger on it, and again felt the surge of knowledge, but a little more controlled. Instead of completely overloading him, it was manageable, so he maintained the contact for several seconds as he assessed what was happening and what knowledge he was being given. Said knowledge consisted of the understanding of how to cycle energy into the orb to activate four similar alchemic arrays used in human transmutation of the injury healing variety-though there were also many sub-arrays controlling the functions of the main arrays. By knowing that, he could assume his contact with the orb was force-activating the first stage of an alchemic reaction, known as Comprehension, or the analysis and understanding of the inherent properties of an object to be used in a transmutation. It also seemed that, by using the orb, the only cost for the transmutation was in his own personal energy, meaning he could only use the effect so many times without a rest, but by that very fact, the orb seemed to be a form of a Philosopher's Stone...

And yet, they couldn't be Philosopher's Stones and still be laying around in a trail of slime on a mountainside, could they?

Lifting his finger and leaning back a bit to think, he let his gaze travel along the dark green trail of gunk, again noting the other orbs, and especially the yellow and blue ones. After all, while green orbs made some degree of sense in the green gunk, yellow and blue didn't. What he knew of them was that they contained both knowledge and power, but while it activated similarly to the alchemy he knew, it was also very different, and if he wasn't so opposed to the existence of 'magic' and 'spells', he'd say that was exactly what those orbs were giving people access to, but spells weren't scientific and even these orbs had a scientific basis he could track by the arrays he'd seen when he touched it.

Regardless, he knew it was a bad idea for him to touch them directly currently, so he pictured a stone bowl with a lid and handle he could use to carry them, then clapped his hands together in the familiar motion and put them down on the ground—

Only for nothing to happen. At all.

Blinking, he tried again, that time paying attention to the flows of transmutation energy in his body, and found there wasn't one—it was all being sapped by something.

The last time that had happened had been when he had confronted 'Father' in the chamber under Central and the being had forced all of the energy out of the area, preventing alchemists from using their abilities until 'Father' had released it, though Scar and Mei had still been able to use theirs, somewhat. Amestrian alchemy was supposedly based on taking the energy of tectonic plate movements, but he'd found out later it was actually based on the residual energy of death, and of life. In Xing, they used a different flow which they called the 'Veins of the Dragon', and it was based on borrowing energy from existing paths of it which cycled the planet like veins, distributing energy to various places, allowing plants to grow and water to flow. He knew a few simple Xingese alkahestry arrays thanks to Mei and Scar, so wondered if that would give a different result from what Amestrian alchemy was at the moment.

Drawing a Xingese star array and using stones to 'anchor' each of the five points to create a simple, plain, stone dish, he placed his fingers on the rim and cycled the energy. Nothing happened, even though it was an array he knew how to use.

Straightening, he pursed his lips as he realized the area he was in was so dead there was no kind of accessible energy flow. It was painfully obvious something was wrong, but it wasn't likely he could do anything about it without knowing a lot more about the area, though his first thought was that the dead zone had something to do with the metal monstrosity on the top of the hill. Doing something about the situation may not even be possible for him, or for any one person.

With a sigh as he accepted his inability to do anything just then, he decided to see how big the dead zone was instead, so rose and began walking down the hill, following the trail of gunk until he found the grass line. The border between the grassy area and the dead zone was surprisingly clear, and the slimy trail he'd been following only just passed over into the grassy area, where it formed a small pool a couple feet across. As he'd found both the pool and the border between living and dead at the same time, he moved just a little past said border to test his ability to use his alchemy, this time putting the grass fiber to good use.

Again, he focused on what he wanted, in this case for his cloth shirt to be repaired like new, then clapped his hands and put them down on the grass. With a brilliant, lightning-like flash tinged in green, his shirt was fixed with cloth matching the texture and color of the cotton, but the transmutation had barely used any of the nearby plant fiber. With a relieved, pleased grin, he thought again of something he wanted—cloth gloves so he'd be able to pick up the orbs without touching them directly. Moments later, he had a pair of white, surprisingly comfortable gloves similar to the ones he'd been wearing before the battle against 'Father', and noted again how he seemed to be getting much more product out of a lesser quantity of the starting material. He'd have to re-learn his quantities if that was the case, but he was very pleased with the result, as it meant he could do a lot more with the same amount of materials he was used to using.

Finally, he moved over to a patch of white, pink, blue, and yellow wildflowers and performed one more transmutation, that one to produce a side-strap-style bag he'd be able to wear across the chest from one shoulder to the opposite hip. While most of the bag was in deep, grass green, he'd pictured it having hems in small, white, red, blue, and yellow swirls, and it currently had three internal pouches. One of them was quite small and he'd probably use it for money and things like keys, and the other two which were the largest main one and a second, smaller one for travel items and maybe some of those orbs he might want to keep with him. He threw it on over his left shoulder so it rested on his right hip, then went back to the pool to start collecting the orbs in it.

Immediately upon picking one of the orbs up, he noticed that putting a layer of cloth between the orb and his skin prevented the automatic activation of the Comprehension stage, but something still connected anyway—the orb's basic function and its internal designations of the arrays he'd seen. The way it came out was that he was being given the orb's 'name' and the 'spell names' which matched the arrays, along with the fact that he could only use the first of those 'spells' with his (or was it the orb's?) current level of experience. Each orb, he put in the bag without noting anything more than its name, so it didn't take him long to gather them, and he paused only when he picked up another of the healing array orbs—it was called 'Restore' and had the 'spells' 'Cure' (which he could use), and 'Cure 2', 'Regen', and 'Cure 3' (all three of which he couldn't use yet). By letting it have slight contact with his skin, he followed the array instructions to use Cure on himself, which completely erased his open injuries without even leaving scars.

By the time he got back up to the factory (?) leak's origin, he'd collected quite a number of green orbs of several different types, but still found himself most interested in the yellow and blue ones, especially when picking them up produced very different names from the green types and no additional data while he held it in a gloved hand.

The yellow one came first, and was designated as 'Enemy Skill', so since he couldn't find out any more without direct contact, he held the orb against the back of his arm to assess its arrays. It had a large number of overlapping but largely dormant arrays, and the instructions came out to those arrays activating if he, while the orb was in direct contact with him, felt the effects of certain, special 'monster' attacks—were they 'monsters' or just some kind of animal? Unless he could correctly interpret the arrays, he wouldn't have any clue what the attacks were or what kind of 'monster' might have them, but he could tell some were healing or protective while others were damaging, some elemental and some not. As it had no stored attacks yet registered to it, the Comprehension data was so small it didn't affect him the way the green orbs did, and it had piqued his interest, so he put it in the smaller of the two main pouches.

Directly under the leak was the blue orb, which was also the last one. Surprisingly, it did the same as the yellow one through his glove—its only data was its name, 'Final Attack'. Repeating the process of pressing it to the back of his arm, he found its instructions taking more to access than Enemy Skill's, but not an overwhelming amount, so assessed what it did through the arrays and instructions together. It had to be 'paired' with another orb to function, and it would monitor his state of health once linked properly. If he died, it would force-activate the orb it had been paired with. By the arrays, which were currently dormant, he knew the form of the orbs it could be paired with were typed into categories amounting to 'effect', 'calling', and 'ability'. What did that mean? He was still staring at the blue orb in his hand after lifting it off his bare arm, wondering what he'd found.

He was also sure Al would have been just as interested in the orbs as he was, so felt collecting them would be good so he'd be able to show his brother later. Well, assuming he could figure out where he was and how to get back to Amestris...

"Eh, did you already grab all the Materia shards down to the pool, then?" a deep voice asked in mild surprise from a few feet away. Looking up, the blond teen saw a big, burly man who reminded him greatly of the men in Youswell—generally good-natured and hard-working with the rugged looks of a man who had done a lot of heavy labor in harsh environments. His hair was dark and he dressed in a sleeveless shirt in blue and brown pants.

"Sorry, what?" the younger of the two asked in confusion.

Nodding at the blue orb in the smaller's hand, the big man clarified, "Were you just starting up at the top here, gathering the Materia, or did you start at the pool at the bottom of the hill?"

"Oh, I started at the bottom," the teen replied when he realized the man seemed familiar with the object he was holding. If all the orbs were called 'Materia', that was one less mystery. "Was there anything in particular I should do with them?" It also suddenly occurred to him that in a foreign country, he probably didn't want to be known as a foreigner, so should probably not ask 'where am I?'

"Nah. The shopkeeper likes it when we sell extras to him, but otherwise—finders keepers, you know?" the man grinned.

Blinking, the blond asked, "So he'd pay me for the duplicates I picked up?"

"Sure will. Since you're new to the area, I'll show you to the town and to the Materia shop." At the words, the dark haired man turned and beckoned the boy to follow, leading the way along a path which lead down a steep, rugged hill. "The name's Kurt. What's yours?"

"Edward, or Ed," the blond answered, following the man, but staying alert just in case of an ambush or something. "Thanks."

"Looks like you got a Support type there, which are really rare out of the Mako Reactor. And it's not an All, or I'd recognize that."

"Yeah...How often does that monstrosity produce yellow and blue—Materia?"

With a laugh at the term 'monstrosity' for the Reactor, the man readily explained, "It comes out to one every month or so, usually a Command type instead of a Support. In the case of the Command type, it's usually Sense. Once every year or two, it spits out a windfall, either in the rarity of the types it produces or in the variety, and I'm guessing you got this round's windfall by that Support. At least the Reactor is good for that, considering the eyesore it is."

"You may be right, since I also found a—Command—one on my way up which definitely wasn't Sense. What about the other types it produces?"

By the fact that the man had specified the blue one as a Support type, Ed was forming an educated guess as to the yellow one being the Command type, which was two more questions answered, but he still had more. He just hoped he could get the answers without making himself look like he didn't even know 'what' Materia were! Since he had no idea where he was or how to get home, looking too out of place or too stupid wasn't a good idea. At all. As they reached a more difficult section of the path down, he put the blue orb in the same pouch he'd put the yellow one, as he'd decided to keep it as well, and right then, he needed his hands free to maneuver.

"Well, I think it very, very rarely produces a Summon Materia, usually Phoenix, but that's only happened twice that I know about since the Reactor was built decades ago—it's rather ironic that the Fort Condor Reactor creates a bird Summon! I've never heard of it producing an Independent Materia, but by and large, it produces Magic Materia. Not usually very rare ones, but common and frequently-used ones are more useful and valuable to us, anyway. It's never produced anything legendary, but we sometimes get ones as useful and rare as Revive, Transform, and Time."

"Revive?" the teen asked in surprise. "As in, bringing the dead back to life? There's one like that?"

With a chuckle, Kurt clarified, "It's not a use-all, it has a window—you have about ten minutes to bring them back with the fatal damage undone. Well, that's assuming there's a mostly intact body for it to work on as well. Doctors often have one on them. I know the shop over in Junon has Revives for sale, but we don't have it here."

"I see...You also mentioned legendary Materia. What would those be, as an example?"

"The only one I know of off the top of my head is a Magic called Comet. You know, if you really want to know more so badly, the library in Junon should have a lot more data than I can give you. Well, they are a much bigger city than ours, so it makes sense they'd have more data and a lot more goods of better quality available."

"Sounds like my kind of place. It'll be worth the trip once I'm done here."

By then, they'd reached the town, which turned out to have been built into the hill like an anthill. It was a surprisingly bustling place with men mostly running along Kurt's line, women in dresses, and children in similar clothes to the adults, divided by male and female. Though, it also didn't take him long to notice some women not dressed in the standard dresses of the wives and mothers, but rather, in pants and combat gear; not nearly as many as of the 'dresses' type, but enough to be noticed. Kurt led him through the paths and tunnels, pointing out the items shop and the inn along the way, and to a shop which had two counters, one to the right and one to the left of the entrance. One obviously had weapons and things like bracelets (?) on display while the other showed a selection of green orbs—Magic Materia—like the ones he'd found.

Kurt was already talking with the shopkeeper at the Materia counter, but the sight of a language he didn't understand made Ed pause by the door, eyes shooting from sign to sign and price tag to price tag—then it was as though something clicked and everything suddenly became legible. There was no reason or explanation for how the words suddenly started to make sense to him, and while he was grateful for it, it also left him with a plethora of unanswered questions, because how had that happened? In what reality did people suddenly switch from not knowing to knowing a language they'd never seen before?

When Kurt called him to the counter, he set that aside to examine later and faced the smiling shopkeeper to ask, "So how do we work out the prices and such?"

The shopkeeper answered, "Most shops—items, armor, weapons, Materia—will buy items off you for half price (1)—unless you've got a really strong Materia, which would be more—so the easiest way is to pull out everything you collected other than ones you've already decided you're keeping, sort them into types, and decide if you want to keep one of that type. If you do, put it away and I'll buy the rest off you. Nothing to it."

"Okay..." Edward mused as he dug in his bag.

At that point, Kurt gave a wave and walked away, and the teen started pouring the Magic Materia onto the counter top. He gave a wry grin at the man's impressed whistle, and began separating the types out until he found one independent one with no duplicates. It was 'Seal' and had 'Sleepel' and 'Silence' on it, but he honestly didn't have much use for it, so held it out to the shopkeeper.

"Seal I don't need, though I only found one of it. How much is that one worth?"

"Seal? That's a rarer one and is three thousand gil full price, so you'll get fifteen hundred if you sell it to me. Are you sure you want to do that?"

The man pulled out a paper and a box to make notes on the items being sold to him, and at Ed's nod, he wrote down on the paper 'Seal x 1 1500G = 1500G', and the Seal Materia was placed in the box.

"Sure am—I'm not really the type to do things like that to enemies. Now, as for the rest, I think I'll keep one of each, so that's a Restore, Heal, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, and Poison...That leaves you with the rest."

Ed put his chosen ones in his keepers pouch in his bag as the shopkeeper wrote out the list of what he was left with and moved the spare copies to the box once they were written down:

Restore x 3 375G = 1125G

Heal x 1 750G = 750G

Fire x 5 300G = 1500G

Ice x 4 300G = 1200G

Lightning x 3 300G = 900G

Earth x 2 750G = 1500G

Poison x 1 750G = 750G

The total of the list came out to nine thousand, two hundred and twenty-five gil, and when the shopkeeper pulled out the money from his till, he gave Edward nine of the thousand gil bills, two of the hundred gil bills, two of the ten gil bills, and five one gil coins. In the process of the count, the shopkeeper left the till open, so Ed took a bit of time to examine the sizes of the bills in it, finding them to consist of ten, fifty, one hundred, five hundred, and one thousand gil denominations, with only the one gil coin being any different from the rest. What he could assess by the sheer size and apparent commonness of even a thousand gil bill was that these people counted in pennies, not in dollars. He didn't really know the exchange rate and wasn't even sure they'd have one with Amestris, but at least it gave him something to work with.

 **Notes:**

(1)—In the FFVII game, I believe the sale price of goods is 1/4 or 1/3 of its purchase price and Materia sell for only the amount of experience on them, but that's quantifying the experience too much for a more real world, so I've chosen to make the sale price a flat half of the purchase price. Besides, Ed would be pretty much broke if I kept the original prices and wouldn't even be able to afford a room at the inn!


	2. 02-Path to Junon

Path to Junon

Finally, with his gil in hand and many Materia 'shards' less, Edward turned to face the weapons and armors shop, going to the counter across from the Materia shop as he looked at some of them. It was obvious the weapons were quite well-made, but the prices seemed like child's play, like they were too cheap to be real. Either way, the thing drawing his attention the most was how they had slots on them for orbs the size of Materia, and when he looked at the bracers (he refused to call them bracelets), they showed similar slots as well. Looking closely, he could see how the better quality option of the two bracers had what looked like two slots with a bar between them in what he guessed was the phenomenon of 'linking' the Final Attack Materia would need. The best quality of each weapon type also had two slots linked similarly with an extra, single slot by itself for a total of three.

Looking up at the weapons shop owner, the teen asked him, "What do you think I should have, or will need, to get to Junon? Will I need a coat, a weapon, or so on?"

Blinking, the man gave him a wryly amused grin and said, "It's not cold between here and there, but you'll probably want a tent and some potions for the trip, even if you have a Restore Materia on you. As for the other, if you had a bit of a tough time getting here, any weapons or armor would help you out going further, since the monsters only get tougher the further west you go. Of course, now that you have more Materia, you'll be able to use it a lot more efficiently with some gear with slots, and you don't actually have any slotted gear right now or I'm sure you'd have been using it."

He now knew there would be monsters to fight (and that they _were_ called monsters, not animals), so figured he should take the advice to prepared, especially with the library looking more and more appealing the more he found out about this place. Getting to Junon would be something he'd have to do, and because of the dead zone around the Reactor, he couldn't rely on his alchemy to get him through. On the other hand, Materia seemed to be useable in the dead zones, so it would be beneficial if he could use it—assuming he'd be able to without experiencing information overload. The big question was whether or not he'd react to the slotted gear like other people in this area, or if he'd still get information overload, so he had to test that, first and foremost.

But geez, where in the world _was_ he, that they could speak the same language but everything be so different, like these 'Materia'?

With a contemplative expression and nod, Ed pointed at a bracer called a Mythril Armlet and asked, "Mind if I try that on?"

The shopkeeper took it out of the case and held it out to him, instructing as he did, "Use the leather strap to adjust the size and see if it'll tighten enough for your bare wrist."

Taking the Armlet, the boy followed the instructions, pulling his left glove off to try it on his now bare wrist, and since it fit amazingly well, he took it off, pulled his right glove off, and tried it on the right as well. It seemed the bracers were decidedly adaptable, so he slipped his left glove back on to put his Restore in one of the slots. The result was a controlled flow of information which allowed him to dictate how much data he would get at any one time, from the complete data to as little as the Materia's name. It also seemed that putting Materia in a slot caused odd shifts in his base strength and magic levels—though the effect also seemed somehow incomplete or not properly registering, like it was trying to take effect but something was locking both the diminishing factors and the boosts out. While the result was both satisfactory and beneficial, it still left him with even more questions he now wanted answers to.

Keeping the Armlet on, he asked, "So, can I wear two of these bracers as well as having two or three weapons to use? Also, where will I find bracers and weapons with more slots?" As he spoke, he pulled out the Heal Materia and slid it into the other slot on the Armlet, getting the same results—or lack thereof.

"Well, I don't know all the details, but there's better gear in both Junon and Costa del Sol, which is a vacation and tourist spot near a pretty dangerous wilderness. Ships travel between Junon and Costa del Sol very often, daily at least. The best stuff is either things you find as a treasure hunter, made by the blacksmith near Gongaga, or made in Midgar—of course, that's up on the Plate, where the very wealthy live. As for two bracers, that's up to you, and the weapons are up to you as well, though they won't do you any good if you can't use them or they cripple you."

"I can use any weapon put in my hands."

"That's not what I meant—you'd have to be a fool to use a weapon you didn't know how to fight with. What I meant is that having a buster sword and a lance is useless because carrying one and using the other would be a huge strain and very hard to do, and you sure can't use both at once. Also, because of the reductions in strength, stamina, and defense Materia tend to cause, if you put so many Materia on, you may not be able to protect yourself even if you have strong Materia slotted." While he liked spears, there weren't any available in this town, and his weapons skills were varied enough for him to use any weapon very well. He'd adapt, especially with the way it looked like the Materia were functioning.

"Oh...Well, they're both my look-out, right? I know I won't slot more Materia than I can actually support and maintain decent physical ability with. Anyway, in the case of weapons, I was thinking of a sword and glove. I'm just not sure I can afford two weapons and two bracers, items like a tent, and food and a stay at the inn..."

The shopkeeper looked amused as he said, "The local inn is only twenty gil, and it's only thirty in Junon, both of which include any meals you happen to be there for during the day. If you go as far as the ship to Costa del Sol, the ticket is fifty gil each way. A tent is five hundred and each potion is fifty, so the cost of those depends on how many you buy. None of those are a big expense, and anytime you upgrade gear, you'll get some back from the sales of your old gear. Mythril Armlets are three hundred and fifty gil, or two for seven hundred, the Mythril Claw is seven hundred and fifty, and the sword...Were you looking at the Mythril Saber or the Mythril Rapier (1)?"

"Rapier," the boy said immediately, knowing he wasn't going to use a sword bigger than him—ever. And the Saber _was_ bigger than him.

"So another nine hundred gil, for a total of twenty three hundred and fifty—you still have almost seven thousand left."

"Oooh...Yeah, I guess if things like inns are so cheap here, I have plenty for what I need. Okay, let's go with the two Armlets, the Rapier, and the Claw."

Ed looked at the bills he'd gotten from the Materia sales and picked three of the thousand gil bills to give the weapons shopkeeper so he could break one of them. He was given back a five hundred, a one hundred, and a fifty, along with a second Mythril Armlet, a Mythril Rapier, and a Mythril Claw. Taking off his left glove again, he fastened the new Armlet onto it, then pulled the Claw gloves on—they were full gloves with four casings across the back of the hand where blades would slide free if he wanted to fight with them, so with the blades retracted into their casings, they may as well have been a regular pair of gloves. On a whim, he put Final Attack on the second Armlet, and attached Enemy Skill, Poison, and Earth to the slots on the Claw. Finally, he strapped the Rapier on at his waist and pulled it far enough from its sheath to put Fire, Ice, and Lightning in the slots on it. The bills he had left over from his sales as well as his change all went in the small change pouch in his bag, and his transmuted gloves he put in the keepers section, just in case.

"Thanks for your help!" the boy said cheerfully to both shopkeepers as he gave them a wave and left.

On his way out, he heard them both reply with a bemused, "Have a nice day!"

Finding his way back to the items shop, he took a look around at the items there and found it was true—a surprisingly compact tent was only five hundred gil, and if he got ten potions, he'd make an even thousand in purchases there. Since that would make things easy, he was about to say he'd get them when he figured he should ask the items shopkeeper something he hadn't considered until he noted things like poison antidotes and eye drops in the shop.

"Do the monsters between here and Junon use anything I'll need to actually fix myself, like poison?" he asked the woman.

"The only thing I know about is darkness, which you use the eye drops to fix, but any of the effects a monster can cause on humans only lasts until they die. If you can fight effectively with your eyes closed, I'd say don't worry about it, and none of the other monsters in this area use any effects, regardless. If you were heading north through the Mythril Mine and into the Kalm and Midgar areas, some of the monsters would use poison, sadness, or fury. Sadness and fury stay with you unless you head into town to get some care at the inn or doctor's, or you'd have to use a hyper or tranquilizer, but if you're heading to Junon, there's nothing to worry about," she explained. "Of course, you aren't likely to encounter many monsters if you go straight to Junon. Normally, if you leave here right after breakfast, you'll make Junon by noon the next day."

"Okay, then I'll make it easy and get a tent and ten potions. Thanks for your advice, and here's the gil for my stuff," he grinned, handing her a thousand gil bill. After all, he knew he could fight just fine blind (though not perfectly), and that was only _if_ a monster happened to use the effect on him.

She quickly packed up the items for him, and he headed for the inn, where twenty gil was indeed enough to stay there overnight, and to get his evening and morning meals. The inn also provided travel food which was pretty cheap as well—each meal was five gil, so if he got four meals' worth, it would come to twenty gil. Since both the food and the room were simple but decent quality, it was no trial to pay for a night and some travel food, which he bought right away and put in his bag, knowing he'd be heading out pretty early in the morning and travel food was such because it wouldn't go bad easily from sitting out for several days.

By the time he was done and eating his meal in the inn's main room, he was flipping discreetly through his bills under the table, seeing five thousands, a five hundred, three hundreds, three tens—and he still had five coins left over. Fifty-eight hundred and thirty-five was still quite a bit to work with, but he had enough sense to know he'd need to start looking at ways he could make an income, probably while he was in Junon. While collecting and selling Materia was lucrative, it wasn't anything like reliable, and his only benefit right at that moment was the convenience of him waking up at the 'windfall' with enough spare time to figure things out and collect it all before someone else came along and took it. In Junon, he was likely to be able to find out what kinds of jobs he could do to make a steady income, so that was yet another reason to go there.

As he put his money away, he paused when he heard a disturbed traveler talking to the innkeeper in hushed tones, both of them looking concerned. Apparently, there was a bandit going around outside Junon, attacking, robbing, and often killing people. He had been for months and no one had been able to stop him, as the traveler said some of the local infantry and several mercenaries had tried—and all of them had wound up dead, save one lucky trooper who had been knocked out. In other words, he should be careful near Junon, since the idiot bandit may try going after him as a solo traveler.

Not long after, he went to his small room and settled in for a good rest, still puzzling over where he was and how he'd gotten there, along with all the oddities encompassed in his change of location. Most of his thoughts outside that were taken up with Al and Winry and everyone else in Amestris, and he again wondered exactly what had happened with Truth that Al wasn't with him—had it not worked? Had it worked and he was paying the price for it? But then, what was the purpose of him being ditched in some random location if it was—well, either of those options? And why couldn't he remember what had happened after he had transmuted 'Father', which he knew would have sent him to the Alchemist's Gate?

He woke fairly early in the morning, but breakfast was already being served, so he ate quickly and set out, heading mostly west and only slightly north. By how short a time it would take him to walk it without even a road to follow, it was pretty safe to say both that the cities weren't very far apart and the land mass wasn't very large. As far as walking and all the talk of monsters went, the largest part of his trip was completely uneventful, which gave him time to examine his surroundings and have his meals in peace. Unfortunately, there wasn't all that much scenery to see, and almost all he was walking through was a wide open grassland with a few patches of forest and mountains in the distance to the north—a direction he definitely _wasn't_ going in.

His first encounter was with three green, lizard-like things which jumped out of the grass at him and stood to about his chest at the shoulder, but they were skinny and quite weak. After all, it only took him a minute to effectively behead all three with a couple quick twists and spins, and that was with just the blades on his Claws. What puzzled him was their appearance, since he'd never seen anything like them before. He had to wonder if they were chimeras or natural—monsters. Then again, people talked about them the way his own people talked about wolves and mountain lions, like they were usually not present, infrequently nuisances, and rarely became deadly. It was possible they _were_ natural and had always just been part of these people's lives.

In a small patch of woods on his way, he encountered a pair of vivid purple birds which were toast with one strike of a Bolt spell each—the first time besides the use of the Restore when he'd actually used his new Materia. Not that he needed to in the area he was in because he could have used alchemy, but he was no fool; he already knew how to use alchemy, and it was the Materia he had to become proficient with in order to be effective in any other dead zones he came across. As such, learning to tap the orb and activate it was his highest priority currently, and while he wasn't finding it hard given how it was essentially a branch of alchemy, using it in battle required adaptation.

Fire was the next Materia he tested, when four walking plant-seed things which defied logical explanation attacked him back out on the grassland nearing the time he'd been thinking of stopping for supper. The fire took out the one he'd targeted, and he drew his sword to slice another of them in half, then quickly shot off another Fire as the last of the creatures shot some kind of spark explosion at him. Dodging that attack, Ed quickly stabbed it with the rapier, and followed up with a deep slash from the Claw on his free hand, killing it. Taking a deep breath, then deciding here and now was as good a place as any to stop and eat (and rest), he sat down on the grass nearby and stared at the strange, vine-like head fixtures of one of them while he ate.

Half an hour later, he was still sitting there, resting after the battle—using the energy Materia tapped into was tiring, like flexing a new muscle—when he noticed some kind of glow floating around the bodies of the monsters. Blinking, he frowned and muttered, "What the...?" as he got up and moved over to look more closely at what was going on. At first, he'd thought the light was being caused by a type of firefly, but it wasn't anything so tangible. Rather, bits of the monsters seemed to be breaking off them and floating around until they either settled on something and vanished or hovered in the air for long enough, at which point, they would vanish. He was very sure they were _vanishing_ , not 'going out', because whatever was creating the glow was either nothing more than energy to start with, or there was nothing being left behind, say, if he caught a floating light in his hand. Whatever the gentle, green-white light was, it was eating away at the monsters steadily, and he really had no clue what to think of that.

Moving on, he found a good place to camp for the night, and got a good rest which was undisturbed by monsters, a fact which surprised him. Maybe the tents had some kind of monster repellant on them? Either way, he ate his breakfast and headed out, turning to head slightly more north and hoping he'd estimated it right so he'd hit the coast near to Junon. While he was mostly walking in the grassland still, he started seeing or crossing the edges of dead land, so he could safely assume he was getting close to another device like the Reactor, even if it wasn't specifically one. No one had said anything about Junon having one, but it was possible, especially since he had no clear idea of what they were for yet.

On his way, he encountered a very strange, somewhat owl-ish bird which apparently was built to walk on the ground as easily as fly. It sent some kind of dark whirlwind at him which didn't do anything, and a Bolt spell didn't quite take it out. A rapier slash finished it off before it could get off the ground, showing him it was built to walk because its reaction time was far too slow for it to rely on flight—it would be more likely to kill itself by crashing with its reaction speed. That would also explain the darkness, if it was the monster the items shopkeeper had mentioned might blind him.

Finally, he reached a dead zone which was more extensive, and knowing Junon was on the far coast, he went around the base of the hill to the south side, testing his alchemy on the way. Sure enough, it didn't work, so he was in a zone as dead as the one around Fort Condor—and he hoped, ironically enough, that it meant he was near Junon. By the time he'd rounded the hill to the coast side, another monstrosity larger and more expressive than the Fort Condor one had come into view. With a derisive snort at the huge cannon barrel he could see pointing out at the ocean, he realized the city was built well above the ground and ocean level on levels of metal scaffolding, so either there would be a _long_ stair leading up or there was an elevator. He again asked himself why there were no roads between towns.

Suddenly, a large, red, Hell-hound-like monster jumped in front of him from a higher ledge with a snarl, and on the monster's back was a man covered entirely in black armor and carrying a spiked mace. The man was large, along the lines of Major Armstrong, and the monster he rode was twice Edward's height at the shoulder. As soon as the monster had entered his field of vision, he'd come to a halt, and currently was generating a Fire spell in his left hand, which was facing away from his attacker, whole body on alert for sudden movement.

"Give me your gil and other valuables or I'll kill you and take them anyway," the rider growled at the boy. The hound-thing added a threatening growl of its own.

Smirking, the sixteen-year-old said sarcastically, "Oooo, you're _so_ brave attacking a kid as a grown man and with a pet monster. Maybe I should learn from you, Bully-Man."

There was a pause filled with an aura of rage, then the hound launched itself at Ed. He skipped out of the way as he threw his Fire ball, but the hound only stumbled a bit from the flame attack. As it was about to attack again, he cast Quake on the ground under it to make it stumble again, and while the monster was off-balance, he shot forward to attack it with his Claws, slicing open its throat. The hound fell with a gurgling howl as the rider cursed and jumped from its back, launching an attack on the smaller man with his spiked mace raised high. Ed dodged the mace's initial blow and sent a Bolt at the rider as he drew his sword and the bandit had to take a moment to recover from having embedded the heavy mace in the ground. The first swing of the rapier clashed with the rod of the hastily raised mace, just below the mace head, but in the moment he disengaged from the mace, throwing the man off-balance, he kicked the rider in the head hard enough to knock him out.

Pausing, Ed asked in confusion, "And this is the bandit no one could beat for several months? What good's this infantry if that's the best they can do?"

At that moment, he actively realized it felt like someone was watching him, so turned to look around, especially in the direction it felt like the gaze was coming from, but couldn't see anyone.

After a pause, he sighed and searched the man, finding a yellow Materia which was called Manipulate and _many_ bills and coins scattered around in his armor and clothes. There were three thousands, five five hundreds, fourteen hundreds, twenty-six fifties, forty-nine tens, and seventy-three coins, for a grand total of eighty-seven hundred and sixty-three gil. Honestly, he was shocked, but he took both the Materia and the gil, adding it to his own stash in his bag and wondering if there was a way to reduce it somehow—besides by spending it. The Materia went in the keepers pocket, not in his last free slot on his Armlet yet.

Done with that, he headed for the city again, but still felt like he was being watched, a thought which was confirmed when he had the urge to dodge, only to find a bullet embedded in the rock just past the place he'd been standing. Turning to look in the direction of the bullet, he again didn't see anyone, but the sense of the observation was amusement so strong he could feel it, and he had a pretty good idea of where his watcher was, anyway. Town wasn't far, so he turned to jog towards it, shifting in and out of the rocks and platforms scattered across the landscape, effectively preventing his watcher from 'testing' him again.

It took him by surprise when he reached the edge of a small town sitting in the shadow of the city above, so he took a few minutes to explore it, finding a washed-out, polluted town which was dying out. There was a path down to the beach, so he decided to check out the condition of the water—if the land was so bad, the ocean probably was as well. It wasn't a bad beach, to be honest, but with the scaffolding and city above, it certainly wasn't the kind of quality beach it once would have been. His follower was still there, so he didn't plan on spending long there, but as he was about to turn and go back to town, he saw a flash of brilliant red in the water, so waded out to it. The water was up to his knees by the time he could reach out and grab it, which nearly meant submerging in the name of retrieving the red object—which told him its name, _her name_ , was Shiva.

As he stood in the water, staring at the red orb in his hand, he felt compelled to let it touch his bare skin, so used the skin against the back of his arm again. Rather than instructions—though it still had those—she spoke to him.

 _:Thank you for finding me, Sentinel. Keep me close so I may protect you.:_

 **Notes:**

(1)—I'm adding regular swords alongside the huge ones Cloud uses, as it actually doesn't make sense for any world to have only massive weapons like the Buster Sword.


	3. 03-Turks

Turks

By the time Edward came out of the dazed state finding the red Materia had put him into, he was approaching the only thing in town which looked like it might lead up. He paused to put it—her—Shiva in the open slot on his Armlet, and she _purred_ into his head, making him blink, then close his eyes tiredly, wondering about his luck again. At the same moment, he remembered his watcher, so turned to look in the direction of the gaze, which was at the corner of one of the nearby homes. While he couldn't see 'who' was there, he could see a black-clothed arm, so just sighed and approached the man outside the metal gate leading to what seemed to be an enclosed military elevator. The infantryman was dressed in a medium to dark blue uniform which concealed most of his face and carried a rifle on his back.

"Mind if I go up?" Ed asked.

"If you can spare ten gil, sure," the guard grinned in amusement.

Raising a brow, the sixteen-year-old, "I'm grateful, but are you actually _allowed_ to do that? I'd hate for you to get into trouble."

"It's not that we're allowed or not," the guard answered. "If there's an event which means we need high security protocol, we don't let anyone but troopers and Shinra employees head up and down, but the rest of the time, we let people through, otherwise Junon's economy would die. Our immediate superiors here know it, so they turn a blind eye and completely ignore strangers heading through the military facility you come out in above unless they hurt or kill people. The gil goes to funding gear for new recruits or replacing old and damaged gear, so we all abide by it."

With an impressed whistle, Ed pulled out a ten gil bill and handed it to him. "Sounds like it's more than a cash grab, then."

The trooper chuckled, and flipped the switch to open the gate. "Head on up, then."

Stepping into the elevator facility, the teen quickly found the controls and set them to go up, where he arrived at another level which looked identical to the one he'd started on, so he quickly stepped out into the facility. It looked like any other military facility, really, and the cadets, soldiers, and sergeants there _did_ ignore his presence as he found his way to the exit. The town looked like a cramped version of some of the shop districts in Central, where the buildings were several floors high and may have had multiple floors of shops or a shop and a residential area above. He'd barely gotten two buildings down the street when he saw a familiar image on the window of the next building, so went over to look at it—and sure enough, it was a bounty for the 'Hell Rider', the bandit he'd fought outside of town.

Pulling the poster down, he took it inside and went to the counter, asking the man, "How do I claim a bounty if I didn't know he was wanted until I got here just now? I mean, I fought him on my way in, so..."

The man eyed him with a sneering look of disgust and said, "You can start by putting that back and not lying about what you did just to try to get some quick gil."

For a moment, Ed stared at him, then glared and asked, "Excuse me, what? It sounded like you just said I didn't fight this guy just outside town."

"There's no way a kid like you could beat the Hell Rider when even trained infantrymen and mercenaries couldn't," the man replied acidly.

"Except he did," a woman's voice put in dryly from the direction of the door. Both turned to see a woman in a plain, black suit, white dress shirt, black tie, and dark shoes leaning casually on the wall beside the door, arms crossed over her chest and ankles crossed. Her eyes were rich brown while her long, pale brown hair was in a ponytail with her bangs flipped to the right side of her face and a lock of hair dangling to her shoulders on each side of it. She looked to be about twenty-one.

"You mean _you_ did. You know better than to let a kid get away with something like that, and Turks don't usually sympathize with liars," the man glared at her.

"No, I'm not sympathizing and he's not lying—I watched him beat the Hell Rider like he was a children's toy," the woman replied decidedly cheerfully.

"So you're the one who tested my reflexes by shooting at me, huh?" Edward asked her dryly, anger defused in his curiosity about his watcher.

"Yes. You're surprisingly skilled for your age," she answered, giving him a grin. "So, while I had been looking for the Hell Rider to end that threat once and for all, he found _you_ , and I saw pretty much the whole thing, from when your Fire spell hit the mount in the chest." Her gaze went to the shopkeeper as she told him, "Give him the bounty. You can claim me as a witness and Veld will back me."

The shopkeeper made an irritated noise, but took the bounty poster to shred it, then handed five thousand gil in thousands to Edward, who said happily, "Thanks! See ya!" He shoved the money in his bag as he stepped out of the shop, followed by the woman.

"A word of advice," she said after the door shut behind them. The boy stopped to look at her, so she went on, "Next time, kill the target if it's a violent criminal."

"Is that necessary against a human?" he asked with a frown, and her brow rose. "I mean, I know sometimes people will die in fights, in wars. There's already enough death, so why kill someone who could just be put in prison?"

"There isn't enough space in the two prisons which exist to feasibly do that," she replied, bouncing on her feet from amusement and energy. "And someone like the Hell Rider won't change his ways, either. Maybe you still have an ideal view of the world, but reality is a harsh mistress—if you can't kill a criminal, all the fighting skills in the world won't save you."

Ed's response was a non-committal grunt, but then he asked, "So why did you follow me for so long, anyway?"

"Skills like yours are rare, so I asked Veld—he's the current leader of the Turks—what I should do with you. He said if you really are as skilled as I described to him, I should extend an invitation to you to join the Turks," the woman answered, skipping a few steps past him. "SOLDIER and the Turks always scout out fresh blood. People good enough to join either aren't common, so we need to do that just to keep our numbers reasonable. In this case, you qualify for both—usually, that would mean you'd go to SOLDIER, but Veld said we're keeping you instead, and he's the head of the Turks, so..." She turned back to face him with a grin and one brow raised. "Even if you're younger than we usually take."

"Maybe. I'm sixteen, but I know I look younger," he said, making a face.

"Sixteen? That's older than the minimum age (1) for the cadet program which trains both prospective SOLDIERs and prospective Turks. That's good, since it means there's no legal loopholes to jump through to get you," she answered cheerfully.

Tipping his head back, Edward stared up at the sky for a minute, thinking about what she'd said. On the one hand, joining the 'Turks' would probably solve his concerns about income, but not only would that give him no chance to figure out where he was and what was happening to him, but he'd just be shoved back into a military situation with another country, which could create a conflict of interests. And he was no fool, the Turks _were_ a branch of the army, probably the ones who counted as spies, as the ones who did all the dirty work. Could he live with that? Did he have a choice, having been scouted? It sounded like it was literally 'an invitation', not an absolute, by the way she'd talked about it, but there was always a catch.

A further thought was that, if he agreed, there was a good chance he'd have no chance to find Al or go back to Amestris, and he really needed to find that Library and figure out where he was before he said 'yes.' After all, it would be really rude of him to agree, then ditch them at the first opportunity to go home, and he might even start a war—another war, rather—by doing so. Al, and Winry, and all the others back home were his first priority, they _had_ to be.

Finally, he looked back at her and said, "I can't honestly give you an answer right now, because I have something I need to do, first, and I really can't just cut it off. Is there a way I can contact you to give you my answer once I've finished what I need to do first?"

She considered that for a minute, then asked, "Have you got a PHS?"

Giving his head a shake, he said, "Afraid not." That was besides the fact that he had no idea _what_ a PHS _was_ —he _knew_ he didn't have one.

"What's your name?"

"Edward Elric. Call me 'Ed'."

"Wait." She pulled out a device from her pocket, flipped it open, and hit a button on it, then held it to her ear...like a phone? When she spoke into it, he was sure it was a type of phone, a very impressive one. "The boy I scouted is a sixteen-year-old named Edward Elric. He hasn't either accepted or refused the invitation and asked if there was a way he could contact me when he finished his task to let me know his answer. Would it be all right if I gave him one of our spare PHS units?" There was a pause, then she had apparently gotten an answer, as she practically chirped into the phone, "Understood," and hung up.

"So?" he asked with a raised brow.

"Veld has given me permission to give you one of ours. You have permission to add people to it yourself, and to call those people, as well as permission to contact myself and Veld if there's something you need, not just to let us know your answer to the invite. What you _don't_ have permission to do is phone any other numbers listed in the PHS unless Veld specifically gives you permission or orders you to do so. Our units have default phone numbers for all of the Shinra elites, from General Sephiroth to President Shinra, so it's a privilege you can't afford to abuse," she told him, still grinning happily, then pressed another button on the phone. A moment later, she said, "Bring me a spare PHS from our stores. I'm outside the bounty office right now." She then hung up and met Edward's golden gaze, silently asking if he had any questions.

"So...what's _your_ name?" he asked dryly. "I have Veld's so I know who to put a call through to if it's him I want to talk with, but what if I need or want to contact _you_?"

"I sometimes get called Shotgun, but I'm called Freyra. I was a hunter before being scouted for the Turks, myself, hence why Veld gave me permission to go after the Hell Rider because of the continued problems he was causing," the woman explained skipping another couple steps forward, then all the way almost back to Ed, stopping just outside his personal space. "What is it you need to do, or is it personal?"

Lifting his shoulders in an almost-shrug, the boy told her, "It's pretty personal, something I have to work out for myself before I consider serious employment somewhere. I'd give the same answer to anyone at this point."

"Oooh...Okay, then," she agreed, smiling. "I hope you work it out soon. What did you find in the ocean? I only saw a brief flash of red—was it Summon Materia?"

"Yeah, I picked up one called Shiva—that's the first Summon I've come across."

"Mmm, they can be really fun to have, since they can talk with their summoners. Of course, it has to be tangibly summoned to do so," Freyra grinned.

"Well...That's new. I guess I should take some time to do that. Is it better to be away from people, or does it matter?"

"Shiva's basically the same dimensions as a tall human woman, so you probably could summon her in your room at the inn if you really wanted, but most people want their conversations with their summons to take place away from people. If it was one like the dragon Bahamut, you'd have to call it into a big enough space, and even most city streets won't contain a summon like that."

"I see. I think I'm glad mine's a smaller one in size, then—I have more freedom to call her whenever, rather than only in a space big enough."

"That's how a lot of people feel, even when they're proud of their summon."

As the blond was about to answer, an eighteen-year-old man with short, unkempt red hair and also wearing a black suit called, "Here's the PHS you wanted, Freyra!" He jogged up to her and held out the device, which she accepted with a grin.

"Thanks, Alvis!" she said as she faced Edward and held it out to him. "So, you don't know how to use one, do you?" she asked as the boy took it.

"Nope, never had one before," he admitted, which seemed to please her.

Alvis, on the other hand, frowned deeply and said, "You can't just give strangers our specialized PHS units!"

"I checked with Veld and he said it was fine. Anyway, Edward has an invite to join us once he finishes his current task," she replied cheerfully. "Feel free to check with him. In the meantime, I'm going to show Ed, here, how to use it."

"Fine, I _will_ check with Veld," Alvis glared, moving a bit away and pulling out his PHS.

The woman was a very thorough teacher, and within ten minutes, he knew how to use the phone book, add and delete numbers, set numbers to speed dial, and how to take pictures and forward them. He put Freyra's number on speed dial, and asked her about other features on the device—she told him about setting appointment times, alarms, calendars, and several other features he doubted he would use. By the time they were done, Alvis had vanished and Freyra was quite content to direct him to some shops and the inn, and even a gil exchange office, where he could have his coins and smaller bills converted into larger ones for ease of carrying.

The town was 'divided' into two by the huge cannon and the rail cart for people to reach the executive levels, and both towns had inns, the various types of shops, and various restaurants and cafes. The town by the Shinra Infantry base had the bounty office, the gil exchange, and the more expensive shops, while the harbor-side town had the library and less expensive shops, though the gil exchange and library were to either side of the cannon in their respective towns. By the time she left him alone, he knew he was going to visit the Materia and weapons shops in the more expensive town, then the gil exchange, and finally, he'd see about staying at the inn in the other town, which was nearer the library.

From the bounty office, he got to the Materia shop first, and found they had both Revive for three thousand gil and Sense for one thousand. Since those had been previously mentioned to him, he bought them, then headed to the weapons shop, finding they literally sold only weapons, no bracers. He spent a total of twenty-five hundred on an upgraded rapier called a Shamshir and an upgraded glove called a Grand Glove, then sold his old ones for eight hundred and twenty-five. Finally, he got to the gil exchange and pulled out all but the thousands and five hundreds (the thousands because those were already the highest they could go and the five hundreds because he was down to four of those), getting the coins exchanged for a fifty and some tens. He then exchanged only ten of his tens for a hundred, but kept the rest of them for the thirty gil per night cost of the inn, and kept seven of the fifties while the rest were converted to two thousands. Of the hundreds, he kept eight and made the other ten into another thousand.

Once he'd finished there, he found he still had thirteen thousand, six hundred and thirteen gil, all of it more workable than it had been, so went to find the inn. He'd rest for a bit and eat, then go to the library to see what he could find out about a lot of things, top on his list being Shinra and his Materia issue, and hopefully where Shinra was compared to Amestris. Once he'd paid for his night and eaten, he took a nap in his room, waking with his new Materia on his mind. When he'd collected them, he hadn't taken a close look at any of them, not even Shiva—he'd only gotten the basics of 'how' to summon her, not the array or any of the other details, he'd been so caught up in her talking to him. Along with the ones he'd started with, he now also had the Revive Magic (Life and Life 2) and Sense Command he'd bought, the Manipulate Command he'd gotten off the Hell Rider, and the Shiva Summon.

All of this would be so much easier with Al's help...

Well, since Shiva could talk into his head, he thought he should start with her, as she may be able to help him figure out a few things for the setup of his Materia. He pulled out the four Materia, including the one on his Armlet, then slipped Shiva's vivid red orb under the hem of his glove.

 _:What would you like, Sentinel?:_ Shiva asked immediately, then 'blinked' as he deliberately turned his 'gaze' to the array and the flows of energy which allowed activation of a Summon. It didn't take him long to realize the array was a soul transmutation combined with ice creation, which floored him when he first realized what he was looking at. And something like that could occur naturally? _:Not 'that' way,:_ she told him in amusement, obviously having been privy to his assessment and thoughts.

"Then how?" he asked, mind focused on her.

 _:If you wish to speak with me privately, direct your thoughts to me and do not open your mouth. You have the mental control to easily accomplish the task,:_ the woman told him, sounding dryly amused. She then went on, _:We Summons are not chance creations the way other Materia are. The Lifestream_ directs _our creation as her 'children', sending the energy of fragments of her soul to attach to types of Materia, and the type the soul fragment attaches to forms the Summon.:_

After a silence to assess what Shiva said—both parts—Ed turned his mind to her and clarified, _:So you formed as Shiva because your soul fragment attached to an Ice Magic Materia?:_

 _:Correct.:_

 _:Interesting. Very interesting, actually. I'll want to examine that process more at a later date, but right now, I have two things I was hoping you would give me a bit of a hand with.:_

 _:Of course, Sentinel.:_

 _:That's the first—what does 'Sentinel' mean by your definition, and why do you call me that?:_

 _:I cannot explain it well at this time, but suffice it to say that Sentinels are a particular group of people within a race. They are the only ones who find their calling in both battle and learning, who will go to any lengths to protect those they care about and the innocent. By your very nature, you are a Sentinel.:_

Thinking about that, he had to agree with Shiva if that was how she was defining a 'Sentinel'. He had proof of it with his brother, with friends he'd made as he'd traveled, and how hard he'd fought against 'Father' to save everyone in his country. With that point as resolved as it could be, he turned to the next point and turned his attention to the other three Materia shards. She assessed his thoughts on how he reacted to them and how he was currently using the others in his available slots, and gave a voiceless assent to giving him some advice. With her agreement, he pulled the glove off the hand he hadn't put her orb in, and reached out to touch a Materia—Command types were much easier for him to assimilate than Magic ones, so he would leave Revive for last.

As such, the first one he touched was Sense, and the data from it was much more complex than Enemy Skill's was while empty, but all fairly basic and unchanging. When he used it on someone or something—generally something animate—it would imprint in him its physical condition, energy level, and weaknesses, as well as its 'name' as a rule. That could be useful, though he could _usually_ do that himself (other than the name), so didn't think it was hugely important to have access to right away.

 _:That is true, though in areas where you are finding things more difficult, that would be good to use,:_ Shiva agreed.

The next one he touched was Manipulate, which would let him take control of another for a time. Normally, it wouldn't work on humans, and there were some monsters immune to it as well, but most monsters he could use it on, though only one at a time. It would allow him to either command it to use certain abilities it had on enemies or allies he designated, or even just hold it still so it couldn't do anything to defend or attack. Part of its arrays included one to imprint the skills the controlled enemy had available to use on the caster's mind (otherwise it wouldn't be very effective), and he could continue to act independently once he'd gotten control of his target. What he didn't see was how it would be useful, as it was safe to say it wouldn't work on powerful enemies, the very kind he'd _want_ to be able to freeze in place or whatever.

 _:You think too narrowly. You have the Enemy Skill Materia, and you have to experience the skill for the Materia to learn it. I know for a fact no monster will use healing or protective skills on you—unless you Manipulate them into using the skill.:_

With Shiva's input on that, he set Manipulate aside to consider more thoroughly later, then turned to Revive—which showed him very powerful human transmutation arrays, but there were indeed limits to them. The time limit and physical completeness of the body were those, but they _did_ work if they were cast within the time limit on a body which was mostly whole. Was that how he'd gone wrong with trying to revive his mother? Was that how _every_ alchemist had gone wrong, by trying to revive someone far too long dead, instead of learning 'how', then when the next person they loved died, using it on them immediately? Those questions aside, he could see the value of it, but for himself as a lone traveler, he'd never get to use it since he'd have to be dead before it would work on him.

 _:While it is called 'Final Attack', that does not mean it only activates attacking skills upon death. In fact, it activates all Magic and Summon Materia, without exception, and most Command Materia.:_

Ed first froze as his eyes shot to the blue orb he wore, then went back to the Revive Materia in his hand—and his jaw fell open in realization.

 _:Final Attack can trigger Life on me if I die?:_

 _:It can, yes,:_ Shiva answered in pleased amusement. _:Phoenix does the same.:_

That settled it for Ed—he was always going to pair Final Attack and Life—and wasn't that just another of those odd things which had happened since his arrival?

 **Notes:**

(1) When I originally wrote this, I was thinking of something else, I guess, and had put in 'sixteen was the minimum age', so now I've sorted my note on this properly to be where it should be with the right data:

Based on what I know of the actual functionality in Gaia, I'm assuming Shin-Ra considers a person to be an 'adult' at 14 (able to go out and work, live by oneself, and so on). This reasoning is also why the doctor is taking Shalua on and teaching her doctoring skills at 14 (the doctor is actually an existing character in FFVII in case anyone was wondering). This corresponds with actual Japanese society and their laws concerning compulsory schooling: children only need to attend school up to the end of middle school, which is age 14 or so, after which they're free to start working without a parent's consent, move out on their own, and so on. Most choose to attend high school because that will help them get higher-paying jobs, but in most aspects, they're considered an adult at 14. It would make sense for that to be Shin-Ra's basis since FFVII was developed in Japan.

This also makes it _highly unusual_ that Turks kidnapped Shelke at 9 (I'm fairly sure the only reason Deepground got their hands on her is because they killed the Turks before she reached the standard SOLDIER unit she was bound for).

And Deepground doesn't count, since that's classified as an illegal unit in its entirety or the President wouldn't have to hide it.


	4. 04-Assessing

**A/N:** In canon, at this point in the timeline, Rude would only be 22, but due to events in the story as I have them set right now, he's 'around 30'. This is one of the changes I'm making to the pre-0000 canon data. Also, to be clear on Rude's color of skin: it varies quite a bit, but my first time seeing it was in the FFVII main game done back when the best they could do with graphics was blocky characters. It comes out to a pale to medium brown which isn't very different from the color of skin Ishbalans have (which is a medium brown color), but is a little paler than theirs. Sometimes I refer to him as having Ishbalan coloring from Ed's perspective, or dark/er skin.

Assessing

Not long after his assessment of the Materia he owned, Edward was in the library, looking for more data on Materia. Each of his new weapons had given him one more slot to put Materia in, so he now had twelve to work with. One Armlet still maintained Restore and Heal, but the other now had Final Attack and Revive—those two would now always be paired. Even though Shiva had tried to convince him to not bother with the regular Ice, he asked her how often he could call for her help and she shut up, so he now had Shiva, Manipulate, Enemy Skill, and Poison in the Glove and Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth in the Rapier. He'd worry about Sense and any other Materia he got later, when he had better bracers and weapons which had more Materia slots.

There was no doubt he made progress that afternoon, so spent the whole next day in the library, and the day after. On the fourth day he'd been in Junon, he spent the morning exploring the wilderness in the hopes of finding a monster called Zemzelett—the owl-like one he'd met on his way to Junon—so he could test Manipulate and get his first Enemy Skill activation with an ability called White Wind. Since it was a healing ability, he couldn't get it without using Manipulate, or so the book on enemy skills said. If the first one worked, he should probably make note of the rest of them so he'd know what to collect them from. Shortly after noon, he found a Zemzelett, and sure enough, it had the desired effect on both counts, so after eating a late lunch, he went back to the library to make notes on the skills the Enemy Skill Materia could gain.

On the fifth day, he was back to his Materia research in the library, though he was starting to branch out to the data they had on their world. By the end of the sixth day, he had realized he was on another world entirely, one which the natives largely called 'the Planet', but which was actually named Gaia. The world seemed to be quite small and contained, with a very different map from his own and a hugely different dynamic and belief system. There were no 'countries' by that definition, and the Shinra Electric Power Company was the world's governing power and military force, so by it being another world, there was no way joining the Turks would create a conflict of interests due to his also being an Amestrian State Alchemist. He'd also come across data about the Lifestream and how it functioned while looking up both Materia and the Planet, and was starting to understand what had happened to those monsters he'd seen breaking apart. He was exhausted and needed a break after that—he needed time to assimilate all the new data he had.

He had a further problem, though. The realization that 'the Planet' was another world entirely was a blow and left him with nightmares all night as his mind forcibly ran him through memories of his stupidity at eleven which resulted in Al being in the suit of armor and the realization that the Philosopher's Stone was made of living humans' souls. By dawn, he'd given up on sleep and just stared out the small window in the room as he realized and tried to accept that there would be no going back to Amestris, no way to find Al (unless he was somehow on Gaia with him, but something told him that wasn't the case or Al would have been at Fort Condor, too), and no further work there for him. What Truth had done to him had left him stranded, alone, on a world he didn't know and with no way to go back. Shinra didn't have a means of manual travel between worlds, and he was never going to make the mistakes he'd made in the past to try to open the Gate again—he wasn't going to try to revive some dead person, and trying to create a Philosopher's Stone was out because he could never slaughter so many people.

It hurt to realize that, and he needed a distraction. Badly.

As such, on his seventh day in Junon, he spent the day exploring the two towns and the places the soldiers would let him go. For example, he could go right down to the door into the Underwater Reactor Junon was built for, but they wouldn't let him inside the Reactor itself. He wondered how the Reactor was still intact with such lax security, but hadn't found a lot about Shinra yet to know what kind of path or life it would be if he did anything which allied himself to them, though he could guess the Hell he'd get if he got on their bad side. This time, since he was allowed, he looked around barracks and apartments, mostly inhabited by Shinra Infantry personnel, finding a room which had a few troopers and holograms of three other men who told him about fighting techniques, skills, weaknesses, Materia, and something they called a Limit Break. Did he have one? If they were to be believed, anything which was sentient or semi-sentient had one, so by default, that should include him.

Then again, maybe he already knew one of his by things he'd done back home...

When he finished there, where he found another new Materia for Added Effect, he kept exploring—and found his way into an underground area like a posh bar where four men from various walks of life were playing cards. As he stood near the entrance debating whether he wanted to leave or not, he felt someone large and with a powerful presence come up behind him.

"You're new," a man's voice came from behind him, so he turned his head to look. What he saw was a bald man in around thirty with near-Ishbalan dark skin and a large build—and dressed in what he gathered was the Turks' uniform. Unlike the other two Turks he'd seen, this man wore shades as well, and didn't seem to want to say much.

"Just debating if I should ask to join the game or leave," he said in mild amusement. "I need a break from my research, so..."

After a pause, the man asked, "You're Edward?"

"Yeah. I'm guessing all the Turks know about me now."

There was another pause, then the big man gave a nod and took his elbow to lead him to the table where the card game was going on. When the others paused and looked up to greet 'Rude' and invite him to join them, he said, "He's joining, too."

...What kind of name was 'Rude'? Well, it could have been a shortened form of Rudy, Rudolf, or another similar name, he supposed...

While the others were clearly surprised, they all readily made space, exchanged names, and set up a new game with six instead of four. For the rest of the day, he played what was obviously a variation of poker with the group, and when they finally broke up, late in the evening, Rude followed Ed back to the main street and towards the inn. As odd as it was for Ed to think of it because Rude was basically a stranger, he didn't mind the companionship as he was currently living without the constant presence of his brother, and the Turk's size and silence was a lot like Al's.

At the door to the inn, Ed stopped and asked, "Are you staying here, too?"

"No," Rude answered, but it felt like he was going to say more, so the sixteen-year-old just waited. Finally, the man went on, "You're a good choice."

"You mean to join the Turks?" the boy asked with a blink. When the man nodded, the corner of his lips quirked and he said, "Don't think I'm not giving it serious thought. The results of my current task will have a lot to do with my decision, though, so it's not possible for me to just say 'yes' or 'no' right now, and I'm not stupid—once I'm in, the only way I'll be getting out again is by death. Thanks, though."

After a minute to consider the words, Rude nodded, somehow managing to convey both agreement to the last statement and acceptance of the first at the same time. He then held up his PHS and said, "Call me if you need."

Giving him a grin, Edward said, "Thanks, Rude. Good night." A smile was his only reply, so he turned and stepped inside the inn to sleep for the night.

CA

With the realization that he couldn't go back to his own world, let alone his homeland, he felt it was better to absorb himself in the new world he was on—to just not think about everything he'd lost yet, or he would risk having nothing to keep him moving forward. In Amestris, he'd always had something to push him forward, or someone in the form of Al, Winry, or even Mustang or other Amestrians, but now...That was a blank, and there was nothing which would keep him moving if he didn't do it himself. Ironically, it was thinking of all the people he'd said, "You have a good, strong pair of legs, so get up and use them. Move forward," to which was giving him the push to do it himself, because he really hated the thought of being a hypocrite, and if he couldn't move forward now, that would be exactly what he was.

So, his attention turned to Gaia and finding out everything he could so he didn't crash with no one to pull him out of it again.

The next week passed quickly, most of it spent on research, especially when he finally came across some more substantial data about Shinra and a name of a place he could go to in order to get more data about Materia and Gaia itself. Once more, he wound up playing poker in that bar and lounge, spending a good part of that day with Rude again, but his main concern was with what he was finding out at the library. He could easily begin with what _wasn't_ being said about Shinra, and with how much he could tell at a glance was being covered up because the Company had almost complete control over the media in all forms. In short, it looked too good, too clean—even a perfect, pristine company known to help the community (one which _actually_ met those conditions, rather than _pretending_ to) had occasional accidents and dishonest employees, so for all of those to just not exist or to have been played down to an extreme, the manipulation was obvious. Propaganda at its worst.

That day, exactly two weeks since he got to Junon, he took his notes back to his room at the hotel and spread them out around him to start sorting them and re-reading the data as he did. The next day, he spent his time finishing that sorting, and then assessing the data he'd gotten from all of it for a decision on his next step. Much of that was being done as a re-write where he was throwing in his own notes as well.

Gaia differed from his own world in two major ways: the presence of a Lifestream which was physically interactive with the world, and the existence of Mako and Materia.

On his world, carbon was the key component in all things, along with other base metals, minerals, and non-metalic elements, and when the object decomposed or otherwise broke down, it returned to those base _physical_ components, which then nourished the land. The process took an extended time, often ranging between weeks and eons, unless someone decided to create a funeral pyre for the dead. There was also no Mako or Materia, despite the fact that his world had a form (weaker, maybe?) of the Lifestream—the Veins of the Dragon. He'd never heard of energy wellsprings where there was nothing but pure energy coming up from them, and the closest approximation they had to Materia was the Philosopher's Stone, which wasn't created by any natural process, nor any benign one.

The Planet he was on now was the exact opposite. Everything in the world was made up of Lifestream energy condensed into a physical form and given functions in order to 'experience life'. When it decomposed or otherwise broke down, it would eventually just revert to energy form and be absorbed back into the Lifestream. While the Planet was healthy, there was an abundance of Lifestream energy, which created Mako springs, or outlets for the world's excess energy—that led people to the assumption they'd found a power source which would never run out. It was also known that natural Mako springs produced Materia, which meant they were also a formation of excess energy and came from a benign source—the Lifestream itself.

That wasn't a terribly difficult concept for Ed to understand, in itself, but what puzzled him was how people composed of Lifestream energy could possibly get 'Mako poisoning'...unless it wasn't actually 'poisoning' and people had their data wrong...

It also meant Materia couldn't be compared to Philosopher's Stones because they were a natural byproduct of the Planet's own energy and would exist with or without people. The Materia themselves also seemed to have some degree of almost-sentience, just for the fact that something like Final Attack or Enemy Skill could function. Being made of planetary energy instead of people's souls also meant they couldn't be 'used up', as the energy was a constant application and regenerated itself while at rest.

The major oddity he'd found was with the dead zones around the Reactors, and the production of Materia as a byproduct of energy being sucked out of the land. Also, how could there still be existing natural Mako springs if the world was being so badly damaged?

He could really only draw the conclusion that Mako springs and Materia formed in specific places where there was an over-abundance of Lifestream energy, regardless of the state of the land immediately surrounding it. Gaia wasn't 'a contained unit', but rather a collection of smaller units, many of those 'smaller units' being force-created by the Reactors...and in a way, that also meant the Reactors themselves were _extremely_ inefficient and were pulling up much more energy than their communities _used_.

Materia themselves weren't that hard to understand—in his opinion, at least. There were five main types, from least rare to most rare: green Magic, yellow Command, blue Support, purple Independent, and red Summon. While those were the general colors, not all of them were uniform shades of each, other than the red ones—he had a Fire Materia which was a darker green than his Ice, which was darker than his Restore, for example, so he knew what the note about color variance meant. In general terms, Magic and Summon Materia were based on 'elemental' properties or the lack thereof in order to attack, heal, or affect the status of an enemy or ally, or more than one. Command types gave people access to skills they may not have had naturally, and Support modified the effects of many of the Magic, Summon, and Command affects. Only Independent Materia operated independently of the rest, boosting personal ability or causing an alternate independent effect, such as luring or repelling monsters.

Of course, he was rather curious about how the Materia actually _gained_ experience, as 'participating in battle' made no sense. Gaining experience by _casting_ Magics and Summons and _using_ Commands, other than Enemy Skill, also didn't make sense as Support and Independent Materia couldn't gain any that way. Also, after assessing the 'growth' of his Materia over a few days of doing nothing which used them, he was finding they were _all_ growing, gaining 'experience'. The only real explanation he could come up with was that their contact with him through the slots was allowing them to siphon some of his energy to help them grow, much the way they came to exist through excess Lifestream energy in the _first_ place.

While he had complete lists of the kinds of Materia out there, that was actually the _least_ of his current worries, as he was still missing a lot of data about the Planet and the Lifestream, though at least he knew he'd have to go to Cosmo Canyon to find out more, and they hated Shinra people. Actually, just by being a stranger to them, he wasn't likely to be allowed in unless someone from there invited him in if the data in the library was true, but he couldn't say that was or wasn't unless he went there. To compound the issue, he'd found _no_ references to someone who got information overload from touching Materia with bare skin, the closest reference being a group of thought-to-be-extinct people who had once lived on Gaia and were purported to have the ability to hear and speak directly to the Lifestream. Again, his best bet and closest link to that maybe myth, maybe legend lay in Cosmo Canyon.

And then, there was Shinra. He'd made several notes which he now re-read:

 _Shin-Ra Electric Power Company officially, though spoken and written form often interchangeable w/owner's family name, Shinra (President Shinra/son: Rufus Shinra)_

 _Creators of Mako energy, which made people's lives much easier—at a cost_

 _Developed several departments: Weapons Dev (Scarlet), Science (Hojo), Urban Dev (Tuesti), Space Exploration (Palmer), Public Safety Maintenance (Heidegger)_

 _*What does a COMPANY need with Weapons or 'Public Maintenance'—an army?_

 _Public Safety Maintenance branches:_

 _Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department/Department of Administrative Research—A.K.A. "The Turks" (affinity to Rufus?/just guarding him?)_

 _SOLDIER (Special Operations, Logistics, Demolitions, Infiltration, Enforcement, and Reconnaissance)—joint project with Science (Hojo)_

 _Security Department—A.K.A. "Infantry and Police"_

 _The Roboguard—joint project with Weapons (Scarlet)_

 _*Looks like Heidegger isn't very much in control of his own department :P_

From what he'd read, SOLDIERs were enhanced with Mako injections created by the Science Department, which meant they were a bunch of science experiments in the name of creating the 'perfect soldier'. A man (women were excluded due to concerns with fertility, apparently) had to be strong to get into SOLDIER, but being in it made him stronger. The one sure way to tell if someone was actually a SOLDIER was by their eyes, which almost invariably turned glowing blue with a rim of green or teal around the pupil—an effect no normal person had. The Turks and Security, on the other hand, were ordinary, un-enhanced people, the greatest defining factor being their natural level of skill in combat—the Turks far exceeded Security. While almost half the Turks were women, the regular army didn't appeal to women, and the reason listed was that women wouldn't join a completely useless unit good for nothing but show—Ed was actually surprised _that_ note had been allowed into print. Otherwise, there seemed to be near-equal numbers of men and women in all the research-based departments of Shinra, regardless of how morally and ethically questionable the department studies were.

Considering he'd been invited to join the Turks, it had the benefits of giving him access to data he wouldn't have otherwise—the same reason he'd joined the Amestrian military as a State Alchemist—and it looked like they weren't used in experiments. On top of that, the average pay people of their position made was huge, he knew that from experience, so it would give him that steady income he'd been worried about before and then some—he'd be able to keep up his personal research habits. The down-side was that they were also the ones who did the Company's dirty work, and he wasn't sure how well that would sit with him, but he was sure Veld would be able to—tailor his missions a bit, or he'd be able to request ones he thought he'd actually be able to fulfill. However, joining the Turks, especially now, would shut a lot of doors to him, ones which had the potential to be useful—Cosmo Canyon and Wutai, along with others.

Was it worth losing access to those places, or should he wait until he'd visited them? Rather, was it worth risking a trip to Cosmo Canyon just to likely be turned away, or a trip to Wutai as someone sharing general looks with their enemy?

He could understand Wutai's hatred of Shinra, as the 'power company' had demanded the right to take over Wutai, only to be told no, so had launched an attack on the small 'country' to take the land by force. Unfortunately, most mega-powers worked the same way—just look at Führer Bradley and 'Father'—so he was well-aware of that problem. It didn't give him much faith in Shinra's policies, nor their actual degree of care and concern for the citizens whose lives they controlled. On the surface, Shinra looked great, as did Mako energy, but Wutai's only reasons had been a desire to continue living in their traditional ways, which had maintained their own lands a lot better than Shinra's ways did theirs. The Company didn't even keep up basic maintenance of things like their roads, the Reactors, or power lines, making their policy come out like 'let's build it then just let it fall apart because we don't care about anything but money anyway.'

If only he knew more about the things Shinra kept hidden from the public...

And all of _that_ was besides the string of oddities surrounding his arrival on Gaia. He hadn't yet had time to really think about _those_ , either, so now may be a good time. The Materia windfall he'd appeared at, his reactions to the Materia, his reactions to slotted Materia, how a language he hadn't known had suddenly become legible—

A knock on the door made him quickly shuffle his notes to show Cosmo Canyon on the top, then he went to open the door. To his surprise, Rude and Freyra were outside, the man carrying a tray of food—and his stomach suddenly rumbled loudly as he realized how hungry he was. Rude gave a small smile, but Freyra laughed as Ed blushed, then he stepped back to let them enter the room.

"Hi Freyra, Rude. What brings you here?" he asked curiously, sitting down on the bed again—only to find Rude presenting the tray to him. Taking it slowly in surprise, he then grinned at the man and said, "Thanks. I guess I missed a meal or two."

"You did," Freyra agreed. "It was Rude's idea to come and make sure you'd eaten when we hadn't seen you around today. Is something wrong? You don't look sick."

"No, I'm not," he answered between bites of his meal. "Nothing's wrong except for having to compile and assess what minimal results I got from the first stage of my research and what I'm going to do from here."

"Cosmo Canyon?" Rude asked as he examined the top couple sheets of research Ed had done. He set them down again and turned his gaze to Ed.

"It's the only lead I have left, but I'm not sure if I should go that far just to be turned away for being a stranger," he shrugged.

Rude and Freyra traded looks, then the woman plopped herself down beside him and said, "I think you should tell us a bit about what the problem actually _is_ , because only people who think something's wrong in the world ever go there or _want_ to go there."

" _Is_ there really 'nothing wrong in the world'?" Ed asked in amusement, making her blink, then turn faintly pink. "But no, that's not my reason. It's more personal than that, something which affects me specifically. It has more to do with how I react to Materia than it has to do with the Lifestream itself, but Materia are a byproduct of the Lifestream, so there's still a connection."

"How you react to Materia? You seem to use them just fine, if with stronger reactions than a normal person would have," the woman commented.

Pausing, Ed stared up at the ceiling for a minute, the hand with the last of the sandwich which had come with the meal sagging back into his lap uneaten. Did he really want them to know the actual depths of his problem, or was it too risky? Finally, he heaved a sigh, shoved the last of the sandwich into his mouth, and grabbed a clean sheet of paper and a pen to draw small versions of six different arrays for the Materia he had on him. He set them up with two across the page and three down, using the main one for Shiva, the third for Restore (Regen), the strongest for Fire (identical to Mustang's), the main one for Final Attack, and two of the dormant ones on Enemy Skill.

Holding it out to the two Turks, he asked, "Have you ever seen anything like this before? If not, there's no point in my saying more."

Freyra looked at it thoughtfully, but Rude said, "Send them to Genesis."

"Oh, that's right! He has things like this in his office, doesn't he?" the woman asked cheerfully, pulling out her PHS. "Do you mind if I send them to Commander Genesis Rhapsodos? He's our Materia expert, so he'll be the most able to talk with you about this, and he's obviously seen them before to have images of them in his office."

The sixteen-year-old looked between the two in surprised amazement for a moment, then slowly nodded, so Freyra took a picture with her PHS and sent the image in a text to Genesis.

Done with that, she grinned and said, "We should have his attention soon, so we'll see what he thinks of that and what he has to say to you."

After that, they just chatted about general things while they waited for a response.


	5. 05-Alchemic Materia

Alchemic Materia

It didn't take long for Freyra's phone to ring, so she answered it, but just grinned for a moment before saying, "We have our eye on a potential new Turk who drew those just now." After another short pause, she said, "No, I mean, he took about five minutes to draw all six, and Rude—he's here too—reminded me that we'd seen things like that in your office." She paused again, then grinned and said, "Sure, speaker-phone it is!" The woman pulled the device away from her ear and pressed a button, then held it between the three as she said, "Okay, it's on."

"Good," a tenor male voice came from the other end of the line. "So, Turk Cadet, do you know what you drew?"

"Do _you_?" Ed asked wryly in reply.

"Take turns," Rude offered when the man on the other end of the line didn't immediately reply.

A moment of silence passed, then the man said, "That's fair. I asked first, so you start, Turk Cadet."

"My name's Edward!" the boy glared, producing a chuckle from the man. "Fine. The one on the middle right is Final Attack."

"The middle left is the third level of Fire," the man answered.

"Of _course_ you'd know _that_ one, Genesis, you pyro!" Freyra chuckled.

Ed rolled his eyes at her as the man on the other end of the line—Genesis—gave another chuckle, but then he said, "The bottom right is one of the Enemy Skill ones, an attack form, but I don't have that skill to tell you the actual name of it."

"The bottom left is Big Guard, an Enemy Skill on one of my Materia," Genesis answered. "By the looks of it, the other one you drew is for Beta, which you get off the Midgar Zolom."

"Okay," Ed agreed, then decided which one he'd list last. "The top right one is Shiva."

"And the top left is for Regen." There was a moment of thoughtful silence, then Genesis asked, "Do you _have_ Materia high enough for Regen or Fire 3, Edward?"

"No, just like I don't have either Beta or Big Guard—the only one I have so far is White Wind," Ed sighed.

"Then how do you know activation arrays even most _experts_ aren't aware of?" Genesis' question made both Freyra and Rude look at Ed in surprised concern.

"...Any time I touch Materia with my bare skin, I get sent into information overload, and part of what I see is every single array which makes the Materia work. That's why I could draw arrays for levels and skills I don't have yet. While I get almost nothing if I'm wearing gloves to touch them and have control over the degree of information I get with slots, I have _none_ with bare skin contact," Edward explained, realizing he _was_ actually talking to someone who understood Materia well, just by the fact that he'd known what was wrong with what Ed had drawn. Still, how much he would say to a stranger with near-strangers in the room, or how much he _should_ say, made him hold back.

"In other words, the degree of forced information is debilitating?" Genesis clarified.

"Yes."

"There are some possibilities, but..."

"What's wrong with them?"

"Have you ever been exposed to Mako?"

"The answer to that is no," Freyra said. "We can see his eyes—they're a beautiful gold and show no traces of even the slightest Mako infusion or exposure."

"Well, that's one possibility completely negated, then," Genesis sighed.

"What do you mean about Mako exposure?" Ed asked with a small frown.

"What is Materia?" Genesis asked back to him.

"...Condensed Lifestream..."

"What is Mako?"

"...Liquid Lifestream..." The simple questions and answers made him wary for some reason, so he answered with that wariness.

"Don't you think having Mako in your body would have an affect on how you'd react to Materia?" Genesis asked dryly. "I've never heard of a SOLDIER who touched or used Materia before getting the infusion and again after it say they felt the same both times—the Materia felt different, and much more intense, afterwards. They had to struggle to control the increase of power they were producing with the same Materia shard, whereas they'd had to struggle to get a reaction beforehand."

"So it's not normal for me to be able to use them as easily as I do, either?" the teen asked in mild surprise—he'd thought only the actual strength of his spells was odd by what Freyra had said before.

"Well, some people have a naturally high level of magical energy in their bodies, and they—people like me, and you—could cast spells frequently and easily without enhancements. I know I had no issues casting five attack spells within minutes of each other, and those were strong enough to wipe out monsters attacking Banora, my hometown, then even after that, I could cast another three Cures on villagers who had been injured. Genetically, that part can be explained—rare, yes, but known to happen and something we can track. People like us aren't common to start with, so most of those joining either Cadet program need the enhancements or some serious training to use Materia effectively for combat," Genesis explained. "No, the concern is with that information overload. It's like the Planet is trying to..."

A long silence fell at the words, even as Freyra and Rude gave confused looks to each other when the other man drifted off. Finally, Genesis asked, "Could you give me your PHS so I can call you back and talk with you privately? 'Hearing' Materia is—not something we can trace, not in the way you do it, so it's huge in terms of what it means and what data you're getting. Freyra and Rude don't need to hear this—it would probably bore them—so let her have her phone back once I get your number."

"Actually, if it's all the same to you, Genesis, the PHS I've been given is one of the Turks' phones which have all the phone numbers of the top brass in them already—yours as well. I would assume I'm allowed to phone you with your permission," Ed offered, and Freyra snorted.

"Yes, but I'll have to tell Veld you actually _do_ have permission because I 'introduced' you due to your issue," the woman agreed. "But before we cut this off, Ed's notes suggest he could find more information at Cosmo Canyon. Would it be worth it if he made the trip down there, Genesis?"

"Hmm...It might be too general...but would probably be worth a try unless we can sort it ourselves in the call back," Genesis said.

"I'll keep that in mind, then," Ed agreed.

"Fine, then call me back in about five minutes—I'm going to check something in one of my books here in the meantime," Genesis said, then the dial tone sounded.

The other three blinked, then Freyra ended her side of the call and hit a speed dial button as she said, "Then, I'll let Veld know before you even call Genesis back." Ed nodded as she turned her attention to the phone to say, "Yeah, I thought I should let you know Edward was having a bit of trouble with that task of his, so I wound up calling Genesis and they started talking. As things stand, Genesis wants him to call him back on his phone, so I wanted to let you know he has permission to make that call so they can keep discussing the problem Ed ran into." She was quiet for a minute, then said, "Since the problem had to do with Materia and how he reacts to them, Genesis was the best one for me to put him in contact with—he's the Materia expert in Shinra, and he proved he was asking the right questions or I doubt Ed would have actually shared the problem with him at all." The pause was shorter, and the response made her grin and say, "Thanks! You can get the same response from Rude if you like—I could have him text you right now if you want?" Another short pause, then she turned and nodded at Rude as she agreed, "Sure, will do! Thanks again!" She then hung up.

Rude had already taken out his phone and was typing on it, but was still aware enough of his surrounding to say, "Genesis is—dramatic. Don't take offense."

Ed blinked, then agreed, "Sure thing. Are you planning to stay, or...?"

Pausing in his typing, Rude looked up at the younger man and asked, "Do you want us to?"

Making a face, the younger of them admitted, "Not especially—it's still a personal problem, and at least Genesis _knows_ what I'm talking about and what it actually _means_. Not that I have anything against you staying, but Genesis is right on that and you'll be bored with the technical details. Especially if you can only hear half of them."

Chuckling, Freyra rose and said, "Then we'll go. Easy." Rude nodded, then both left the room, closing the door behind them.

Pulling out his own PHS, Edward quickly found the number for Genesis and dialed it—and the call was answered immediately with, "Okay, so now that you've gotten rid of the two hangers-on, what's the rest of what you weren't telling me before?"

Snorting, Ed asked in amusement, "What makes you so sure I kicked them out?"

"You did, otherwise you wouldn't have held back so much or so readily agreed to switch to a private conversation with me," Genesis replied dryly. "There are things you didn't say which you aren't ready to make common knowledge, and you only told me as much as you did around them because I actually _knew_ what you were getting at by picking the arrays you did."

The words made Ed rub his forehead as though warding off a headache, but then he agreed, "Yeah, I left out a lot." Again, he paused, considering seriously how much he was willing to confide in an expert. Some things were out of the question, but maybe the ones related directly to Materia—and his still-functioning alchemy—he could share? "Well, one thing I didn't say has to do with what happens when I slot Materia."

"The boosts and corresponding deficiencies Materia cause are different for you in what way?"

"...They don't happen. I don't gain anything by slotting Materia, but I don't lose anything, either—I am what I am and my use of Materia has to function within that."

Genesis gave an impressed whistle, but then asked, "What else?"

Pausing again for a moment, Ed asked, "Have you ever known someone who could use Materia effects without using Materia, to change the functions of those effects, or even to create completely new effects, again without having Materia on hand?"

Genesis paused, but the sensation seemed thoughtful rather than even shocked or anything else. Finally, he asked, "Can you give me examples of the second two?" Ed could hear the pages in a book being turned on the other end of the line.

Staring thoughtfully off into space, the blond considered what he could say, then thought of what he'd done to his shirt, and of the way he usually manipulated the ground, which was different from the way Quake worked, but used the same array.

"Okay, for changing their functions, you know how Quake just creates a small sink hole which mainly damages them by forcing them to fall over?"

"Yes. Go on."

"If I need to pin an enemy down instead of trip them, I can cause stone spikes to come out of the ground and spear them instead. Without the Materia, the effect still happens, only I can manipulate it, form it, make it turn into—say, a chair, a dagger, a _birdbath_."

The words made Genesis whistle again, the sound impressed, but then he asked, "How is it you do that, specifically?"

"...By manipulating the array for the Quake spell very slightly."

"Good, that part is perfectly normal—it's the arrays which control the Materia in the first place, so modifying the arrays subsequently changes the effects. And what kind of example can you give of creating a new effect Materia don't cover?"

"If my shirt gets damaged, I can fix it, and the bag I'm carrying my things in is one I made a couple weeks ago, using an array I developed myself."

"...And you had no Materia on you when you did that?"

"No."

"Where did you get the energy?"

"The Planet. And myself. It's just like how the Materia has Lifestream energy in it, which powers the arrays from inside, while the activation of the Materia takes personal energy from the caster. It's more complicated without Materia, because when I do that, I need materials to work with, and it won't work in areas where there's no Lifestream energy—like around the Reactors."

"You said there were requirements, like having 'materials'. What kind of materials do you mean?"

"Well, I had to use grass—or 'plant fiber'—to make the bag and fix my shirt, because my shirt and the bag are cotton, which is a plant fiber itself. So, the 'material' has to be something 'like' what you're making, like water and wine as two liquids can be interchanged, but wood can't make water. The only other point of materials is that the quantity has to be comparable. If you need ten pounds of metal to make the object, you can't make that specific object unless you have said ten pounds or more of metal, and it'll only take the needed ten to make the object."

"Materials..." the other man murmured, and more pages turned, then stopped. "There's logic to that point as well, as the Lifestream isn't directly interfering with it through the Materia." Again, Genesis paused, then murmured, "Hmm...Yes, I see." There was a sound like tapping on a book as he said, "I have a book which speaks of a skill wherein the arrays were broken down into component parts and anyone could freely create new arrays. That eventually led to a war, and the Ancients swore off using that skill, praying instead to the Goddess and the Lifestream to stabilize the powers and knowledge they could access so they could never again nearly destroy the world. The Lifesteam's answer was the creation of Materia, which stabilized those powers and made certain no one could create a power so strong it would re-create such a disaster. No specific records give details of the skill or how it functions, so it's assumed any existing records were destroyed.

"Now, it sounds like you are somehow tapping into that very old power, and the question is _why_. Also, how can you be sure you won't create an array which wasn't done correctly and destroy yourself in the process?" Genesis paused and seemed to sigh as he said, "Not many people can tap into the Materia enough to see the arrays, and it's really only thanks to my Mako enhancements combined with my natural affinity for them that I actually can now. I can trace the changes it goes through to make the effect stronger, and I can manipulate the ways the spell functions as well—for the same reason you can. That's why I said you're not doing anything abnormal by manipulating basic arrays, it's just a rare skill and often connected to individuals accessing a Limit Break, thereby giving them an epiphany of a new way to use an old skill."

Again, the man paused for a moment, then went on, "Creating an effect without the Materia in hand or creating a new effect entirely...That's where things get touchy, and where I start questioning the wisdom of using such a dangerous skill without even knowing what it is."

"It's called alchemy!" Ed snapped angrily, then realized what he'd just said and sighed, closing his eyes. What had he just done? Revealed all the same things he'd been trying to hide! And the results...He couldn't see they'd be good.

The pause on the other end of the phone felt sharp, and there was a thump. Finally, Genesis said quietly, "...Is that what it's called? Now that changes things, as it sounds like you _learned_ this skill. The problem is, I suspect, that learning it opened your mind to the paths the Materia functions through, and your information overload is simply because the Materia is _dictating to you_ how much energy it and you will put out, while using 'alchemy' is the opposite— _you_ dictate how much energy the Planet will give and how much you'll put out. Naturally, without the direct Mako or Lifestream connection, the amount of energy you'd ask the Planet for would be much smaller than it would ever dictate it would put out, a quantity which, to it, is miniscule." For a minute, the other man paused, and for some reason Ed felt defeated, having still not opened his eyes.

Suddenly, there was a chuckle and Genesis said, "I think you should go to Cosmo Canyon—if anyone would know the term 'alchemy', it would be them, and they'd let you in if you proved to them you can use alchemy freely. There are no Reactors there for that to interfere with you. When you're done at Cosmo Canyon, call me so I can meet you, probably in Costa del Sol." At the words, Ed's eyes shot open in shock. "I don't think everything we need to discuss can be done on the phone, but—I honestly want to figure out if there's a way to test my theory, and I'm really the only one close enough to your own base skills to possibly reproduce the effect."

"So...none of this, what I do or don't know...bothers you?" he asked tentatively.

"Oh, the things you're obviously still hiding bother me only in the sense that it means you don't trust me to know the whole truth, but I also understand that. I'm a stranger to you, no matter how much I can understand of your situation, and I'd do the same thing, so I can't fault you for it. Well, even if you decide to join the Turks—or not—we should stay in touch to discuss these things—but I'd never want to delve into something like alchemy here in Midgar, where there are _at least_ two scientists who would turn it into some sick human experiment. So—I'll get myself a vacation if you let me know when you're leaving Cosmo Canyon to head to Costa del Sol."

Smiling suddenly for a reason he didn't understand, Ed agreed, "Yeah, I can do that. Thanks for your help this far, and I think you might be right about the pathways I opened and the consequence of those open pathways where Materia is concerned. See you when I'm done in Cosmo Canyon, then."

"Good! I look forward to it," the other man agreed, then hung up.

Ending his own call, Ed now had to consider why the Hell Genesis'—what? His approval? Support? Friendship, even as fresh as it was? Either way, he had to consider why it meant so much to him. Was it just because he was the first person he'd met on Gaia who knew so much about Materia, the arrays, and alchemy, so he was also the only one he could freely talk with about those sorts of things? Still, if Genesis was sure he'd be able to get into Cosmo Canyon by showing them his alchemy, it was probably worth a shot, especially if there was a good chance he'd learn something useful in the process...

And then there was Freyra, Rude, and Veld...

He had no idea how long he sat there for before the phone rang again, and when he looked at it, he saw Veld's number, so answered it with, "You're not calling me because I'm in trouble, are you?"

For a moment, there was a startled pause, then a man with a deep and oddly emotionless voice said, "No, not at all. You certainly have piqued Genesis' interest, though, because he just contacted me to say you have the right to call him whenever you want—his number won't trigger our system anymore if you call it. Am I right to say the situation is more serious than you originally made it sound?"

"Well...after Genesis pushed me for more details, yes. I'll be heading to Cosmo Canyon shortly after all. Should I let Freyra and Rude know, since they were keeping close enough tabs on me to realize I hadn't left my hotel room all day today?"

"Hmm...From Junon, you'll have to pass through the Corel desert and the Gongaga area to get to Cosmo Canyon, and that's an area you don't want to travel alone...If you can't find a traveling companion in Costa del Sol, I'll be able to send one of them with you by having them 'take a vacation'. Do you have a preference?"

The question took Edward by surprise, and it was a harder question to answer than he would have originally thought. Finally, he connected to Rude being similar to his brother—well, to Al in the suit of armor—so he said, "As much as I like Freyra, I think I'd have to say Rude's my preference."

"If you're worried about gender—"

"No, it's not that. Rude reminds me of my brother. Al is...not _here_ anymore, so if I have to pick someone, I'd rather him than someone I don't have that connection with."

Veld paused for a minute, then agreed, "Very well. Yes, I can understand that, and I'm sorry for your loss. Give me a call after three or four days if you haven't found someone to travel with and I'll send Rude to join you, though for him, it'll be a vacation rather than work or a requirement on his part. Good luck out there."

"Thanks...for everything," Ed told him, feeling better about the whole situation. If nothing else, despite everything, nothing with Veld or the Turks was actually changing, which actually relieved him and made him feel better about possibly joining them when he got back from Cosmo Canyon.

"You're welcome," the man said, and hung up.

Hanging up his own PHS, the sixteen-year-old decided to crash, since he'd have to be up early the next morning to catch the ship to Costa del Sol.


	6. 06-Costa del Sol

Costa del Sol

It was just short of noon the next day when the ship pulled up in Costa del Sol, and Edward found himself making a face at the sweltering heat. It reminded him of Lior, but wetter, and all he could be grateful for was that he didn't have to cross a desert to get to it, as he definitely wasn't relishing such a trek. The ship had been a mere fifty gil, but he'd been warned by a few of the sailors about the prices in the resort town—for example, the inn was two hundred gil a night, a huge jump from thirty in Junon. Also, other than possibly a traveling general merchant and a Materia shop, nothing there would be useful to him unless he actually planned on taking a vacation. There were restaurants, bars, lounges, and recreation shops galore, and he'd have to figure out who to talk to for his needs—a possible traveling companion to Cosmo Canyon.

As he left the ship and found his way off the dock, he realized just how much of a tourist town it was, as one of the first shops he saw was a tourism office and visitor's guide center. Of all the crazy things, most of the people were walking around in the smallest swimsuits he'd ever seen—more like underwear than swimsuits—even in the middle of town, not just on the beach. Most of the locals seemed to have quite dark skin, but some of the merchants and shopkeepers were surprisingly pale, making him wonder how long they'd lived there.

One frequent visitor to Costa del Sol he'd met on the ship told him the best place to start was to make his way towards the beach and to find the bar, lounge, and surfboard rental restaurant almost across the street from the stairs down to the sand and surf. It was very popular, but also the place the traveling general merchant would stay to peddle his wares, and next to it was the trailer and 'shop' where the Materia salesman lived and worked. Heading in that direction, Ed walked leisurely down the streets until he came to a corner where the restaurant door was directly facing the beach across the way. Just off-side to where the door lined up on the beach side, there was a wide set of stone stairs leading down to the beach, and against the side of the building was a yellow trailer, beside which was a table where Materia shards were laid out while a man tended the counter.

Since he seemed to be in the right place, he went to the Materia shop first, gently brushing his fingers over several of the orbs before finding one he didn't have yet. It was called Gravity, with the spells for Demi, Demi 2, and Demi 3, but it cost eight thousand gil. If he bought it, he'd run out of money very fast, and he knew he'd have a problem collecting more of it with any frequency, as he could only make decent money off bounty hunting and Materia sales. The current Materia he had weren't for sale...but something told him he wanted Gravity as one of his Materia, even if he didn't slot it right away.

So, biting back a sigh, he handed the shopkeeper the eight thousand gil and took a Gravity Materia, studying it intently for a moment.

As he was about to turn away, the shopkeeper asked, "Hey, are you just here for a vacation, or traveling further?"

Turning back to him, Ed said, "Traveling towards Cosmo Canyon, maybe further."

"It doesn't look like you have a lot left after that purchase, and I appreciate it since that'll cover three months of my living and working expenses," the man told him. "I know Mount Corel has a railway and tracks for the coal mining town on the desert side, and some travelers tell stories about a Mako spring somewhere in the area because there's always strange Materia popping up around there. Also, a lot of travelers drop things on the tracks. Look for them, since a lot of them are pretty valuable. Also, when you find Corel, leave town and take a tour around the desert—the miners tend to ignore it in favor of the coal in the mountains. There's always treasures in the desert, and the area has several very strange monsters, and the Jokers throw coins at you. It's a good way to gather money if you're good at fighting. It's probably not a good idea to go into the area around Corel alone, though."

"Why's that?" the blond blinked.

"Jokers can also cast instant death on you, but it can only affect one person at a time, so as long as there's two of you, it's awfully hard for them to kill you both," the shopkeeper informed the surprised teen, who nodded.

"I was warned not to travel alone in the area through there and Gongaga, so thanks," he answered the man. "You've been quite helpful. I need to take a few days to prepare before heading out, but now I know what I'll be up against." He gave a wave and walked away to the shopkeeper's cheerful farewell, heading back to the restaurant entrance so he could step inside.

It was no cooler inside than out, and it was quite dark after the bright sunshine he'd just been out in. Before his eyes had fully adjusted to the difference in light, a woman approached him and asked, "I help you?"

"Is there a merchant here where I can buy a few things?" he asked curiously, wondering if she knew about that.

With a wry smile, she said, "Merchant sells in left corner." She then shooed him in that direction and went back to serving other customers who were there for food and drinks.

Going to the indicated corner, he saw a fairly young man sitting on the floor with several items spread out around him—mainly travel items, but he also had a small pile of bracers. Crouching down and picking up one of the black-colored bracers, he examined it closely, noting how it had three slots, two linked and one by itself. That was good, so he held it up to the man, and the man held up eight fingers. Picking up two of them, Ed pulled out his last two thousands—he still had two thousand worth of gil in five hundreds, plus other change—and tossed them on the floor in front of the man. In the time it took the man to fish out four hundreds in change, he'd already replaced one of his old bracers with one of the new ones and moved the Materia. Once he'd exchanged both, he threw the two Mythril Armlets down in front of the man, who blinked, then pulled out another three hundreds and a fifty. It was the right change for the sale, so Ed took them, gave the man a grin and wave, and tucked the money away as he headed to the bar counter.

With four gil, he bought a drink—wasn't _that_ just an expensive 'cheap' drink, when the most expensive one he'd tried in Junon had been two at the poker bar and lounge?—and sat there nursing it for some time as he thought again about how to track down a potential traveling companion. There was no way he'd be able to stay in Costa del Sol for long, and Veld had said to contact him after about three days if he hadn't found anyone by then. The longer he stayed, the more the inn would eat away his funds, though he could at least say it shouldn't be hard to get all his meals there—he had no research or poker games to distract him here.

It suddenly occurred to him that he shouldn't be going to Veld or the other Turks—or anyone from Shinra, really—to ask for favors, especially ones he didn't have the cash in hand to repay. Doing so, like taking one of the Turks' phones or going to Genesis for help, or getting Veld to send Rude with him to Cosmo Canyon, all gave them a whole lot of leverage to _force_ him to join Shinra in some capacity. That may actually have been their point, but in all honesty—would that be so bad? He was naturally wary of Shinra and its purposes, but that didn't mean it was all bad, either.

There were further considerations as well; if things were as bad in the Company as he thought they were, it would be pretty much impossible to change them from the outside. If that assumption was true, due in part to lack of real information which was readily available on Shinra and partly due to lack of resources and funds for those outside Shinra's ranks, he'd _have_ to join to do _anything_. Even just research. Of his options, the Turks were the ones with the greatest information access, so it would ultimately have to be them he joined for his purposes (the ones besides his Materia issue) to advance.

As he figured it, the lion's den had almost equal potential of murdering him or welcoming him, and it was only slightly higher on the 'welcoming' end because of his existing connection with Veld and the Turks. He had to wonder what they'd thought of finding no trace of him whatsoever—and he _knew_ they would have done a background check on him right from the first moment Freyra gave Veld his name and age, maybe even sooner by his description if they had the ability to do stuff like that.

"Need a hand with something?" the barkeep asked, sitting down across the counter from Ed and leaning his elbows on the edge of the counter. A glance around showed Ed the barkeep was talking with him now because the place had mostly cleared out.

How long had he been there, nursing one drink?

"Sorry for spacing out...I've never been in this area before, but I have to make a trek at least as far as Cosmo Canyon. The area's too dangerous to travel alone, or so I've been told by more than one person now, so I'm just trying to figure out how I'd go about finding a traveling companion," the sixteen-year-old explained.

The man's brows raised, but he nodded and said, "Check the bounty shop near the tourism office and the tourism office itself—people who stop by both of those places often mention traveling or looking for a traveling companion. You can also check in here every so often, though the last travelers I knew about left four days ago and I haven't heard anything else useful since. Hmmm...The only other place I can think of is a supply shop near the town exit to the wilderness, since it's frequented by travelers. A lot of those are people planning a day-long excursion, but travelers heading for Corel and Gongaga—or places further away—also stop in there."

"Ah, thanks. That's a huge help, actually," Ed grinned at him, filing away the information to put to good use later.

With another nod, the older man said dryly, "Finish your drink and head to the inn or you'll miss your meal there."

Blinking, the teen asked, "What time _is_ it?"

"Seven—they stop serving supper at seven thirty."

"Oh. I'll do that, then. Thanks again."

Downing the rest of his drink—and still trying to get over the shock that he'd been sitting there for about five hours already—he pushed the glass back over to the barkeep and left quickly, heading to the nearby inn. It was on the beach side of the street just past the stairs and tucked between the Materia shop and the divider separating the town from the beach and ocean. As much as it pained him to give up two hundred gil, the meal was fantastic and the beds were luxury class, so he felt better about paying it. That night, he went to bed early, taking some time to review his notes before actually putting out the bedside lamp and laying down to sleep.

CA

In the next three days, he found _nothing_ to track down a traveling companion.

Ed got the impression he was being prevented from leaving Costa del Sol, and he was sure it wasn't the Turks doing it. Regardless, the impression was there, very strongly, like he was some kind of errant child who they were 'doing their duty to keep safe from harm'. Did they think he'd be trying to travel so far if he was helpless or being careless, or were they just putting blinders on because he looked younger than he actually _was_?

Either way, it was bloody irritating, and it meant he'd have to resort to calling Veld after all.

Sitting in the inn at a small table after eating supper, he pulled out his phone and found Veld's number in the list so he could let it dial. Veld answered it with, "Can I assume this means you need me to send Rude?"

"Yeah—these idiots seem to be keeping anything about traveling companions away from me deliberately," Ed said dryly. "I'd rather have done it myself, but they've all gone stupidly protective parent on me or something, so..."

The older man commented, "You seem to have the worst luck that way. I think Freyra and Rude are the only ones to have met you and seen your strength and ability, rather than your looks. He'll be there tomorrow with the ship, then."

"Great, thanks," the teen agreed cheerfully, then hung up.

Well, it looked like the Turks had one more point towards forcing him to join, so he should just accept his position as one. Even if it wasn't official yet.

That night, he actually began thinking back to the oddities he'd experienced since arriving on Gaia. If he looked back at the last thing he remembered, it was the human transmutation meant to retrieve his brother's body, powered by 'Father's' super-charged body which was equivalent to a Philosopher's Stone. By opening the Alchemist's Gate in that way, he could get rid of the threat to his world and keep his promise to his brother at the same time. But, even though he remembered the activation of the transmutation and how it had indeed used 'Father' as its materials, there was then a blank until he woke up on the Planet. There was no recollection of the Alchemist's Gate opening or of him meeting Truth again, or of his brother's body being restored...How could he have forgotten all of that, or had it not happened, despite the fact that it should have?

Immediately upon waking, he found himself in a dead zone beside a trail of Materia, some of it very rare and high-level, like Enemy Skill and Final Attack. He honestly didn't think that windfall was a windfall at all, because it just seemed too contrived that he'd find something like Final Attack upon arriving on a new world. It had basically guaranteed him a free chance to cheat death, after all, and the timing was also too perfect to make it anything but planned. On the same token, that very fact was what had allowed him to determine as much as he had about Materia and the dead zones, which had also given him some sort of purpose on the Planet, so he couldn't fault it entirely. The contrivance behind it made him think of Truth deliberately giving him a push in a certain direction, which was possible given what Genesis had told him about the Planet having once used alchemy—and therefore, they'd have had a connection to the Alchemist's Gate.

Setting aside his reactions to Materia, slotted or otherwise, took him to the next point which made this seem deliberately contrived to lead him in a certain direction—the language. He hadn't thought of it before, but if he hadn't known what the written language was immediately, maybe he also hadn't immediately known the spoken one, hence the reason he'd missed what the man had first said to him at the Fort Condor Reactor. The very fact of the matter was that the language of Gaia was different from his own, and he had never known it—but something or someone had granted the knowledge to him as he'd come across it. As invaluable as that was, it also posed a problem and left him with more questions, because if it was a gift he'd been given, it could also be taken away, and he had no idea if it would apply to other languages.

He'd understand the reasoning either way, but the number of Gaian languages he could learn that way would also indicate the scope of his task and who he was expected to deal with to accomplish it. The world's main language meant he'd have to interact with Shinra, but if he also 'just knew' Wutain, it could very well mean he shouldn't join the Turks because he'd have to be able to deal with all the groups. There were also other languages he'd have to see if it worked with, or if he'd literally been given just the one, and his arrival location had been deliberate to trigger him to said main language.

While he didn't know exactly what had happened or how he'd gotten to Gaia, the things which were just too strange for words concerning his arrival were deliberate and planned, he was sure of that. His path on this world may have been his own, to some degree, but by his introduction to the Planet, there was clearly a purpose behind it, much like how Truth tricked him into stopping 'Father' by setting him on that path when he began seeking a way to restore his brother. The similarity was eerie, but...if a restored Al had been here with him, maybe he'd have given it up and settled down. In finding himself alone on an unfamiliar world, he now wondered if what he was doing now was the price he paid for restoring his brother—to be severed from him, to never know for sure. Either way, part of his drive now stemmed from wanting, and needing, to keep himself busy so he didn't think too much about Al's absence.

His last thought before falling asleep was of how he remembered Al as a boy the day they'd tried to bring their mother back—the last time he'd seen his brother as a flesh and blood child just like him.

CA

Around noon the next day, Ed headed to the harbor to meet the ship from Junon, carrying with him some food from the same restaurant he'd been checking in at for any travelers. When the man asked why he was getting so much, Ed just grinned and told him he was meeting his traveling companion shortly, and they would be leaving immediately after they'd eaten. The barkeep looked shocked by the information, and the sixteen-year-old had left with a rather smug expression. It had basically confirmed they weren't letting him leave town, with or without a companion, so he felt no remorse over not explaining anything to the man.

The ship was pulling up as he arrived, so he sat on a round, stone post nearby to watch the docking procedure. The place he'd chosen to sit was right beside a flat-topped harbor border lantern, so it formed a square about two feet by two feet and at just the right height to serve as a make-shift table with the posts on either side as seats. Once the ship had docked, it didn't take long for Rude to join him—still wearing his sunglasses, but now dressed informally in dark brown denim pants and a white, sleeveless shirt similar to Ed's own. He also had a bag similar to Ed's with him.

"Hey, Rude," Ed greeted the man, waving at the post on the other side of the lantern. "The ship doesn't serve meals, so I got us some grub before we head out." Dropping the packaged food onto the top of the lantern and opening one package to eat prompted Rude to sit and do the same, stance and expression showing some amusement. "Is this actually a holiday, no strings attached, or do you still have to report back to Veld or take off part-way through?"

"Vacation. Barring an emergency," the man informed him. After a momentary pause, he added, "Thanks."

Giving a dismissive wave of the hand, Ed said, "No problem. People here were being obstinate, and I knew you wouldn't be, so I figured it would be a win-win. Thanks for coming along, though."

The larger man nodded, then asked, "Itinerary?"

"I'm almost out of gil, so I plan to search out lost items and Materia as we travel. Also, we'll have to cross the desert from what I've heard, and I plan to try collecting gil from some of the monsters there. I don't want to linger, but it's not like I've got a guaranteed income right now for things like inns. The path would take us along the Mt. Corel tracks to Corel, then through the desert past the town, to Gongaga, and on to the Canyon. The tracks are a day, the desert another, and two from Gongaga to Cosmo Canyon. Do you have any idea how to get to the town, or will we have to search for it?"

"I know it."

"Good, then we won't have to waste a lot of time there," Ed nodded. He had almost finished eating, so turned to look towards the dock, ocean, and the ship making preparations to return to Junon, eyes seeing calculations of time and distance.

After a pause, Rude asked, "Do you ever enjoy it?"

"Enjoy what?" the teen asked in surprise.

"Life. The view."

Turning to look at the man again, the blond boy asked with a somewhat puzzled frown, "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Rude."

Setting down his meal, the man pulled out his PHS and began typing on it while Ed watched in puzzlement, feeling worried suddenly. When the man finished, as he was setting his phone down, Ed's PHS rang the text message dial tone, so he pulled it out and looked at the message. It was from Rude and read:

 _Since I'm not good with spoken words, I'll explain this way. Also, we'll both have a record of it now that I've sent it in a text message. I've seen you study, research, and explore, applying an intensity and concentration which is rare. Even playing cards you have it. You don't look happy, though. When you explore, it's for a reason, not just to explore, and you only joined the card game because I insisted. Why do you never take the time to appreciate the scenery, to have fun enjoying something which isn't work and isn't for any reason in particular? Why do you never let go of that intensity, even for a short time to just...look out at the ocean and see the waves, rather than seeing some sort of calculation in your mind? When do you enjoy the world around you, the fact that you're alive to see, touch, experience it?_

The words honestly shocked Ed to the point where his mind went completely silent and still, followed by only one feeling—pain, a deep sorrow for the childhood he'd lost. Lowering his head to hide the tears in his eyes as he let the hand holding his PHS rest on one knee, the teen said softly, "...I don't remember _how_ anymore, since my mother and brother..."


	7. 07-Collecting

Collecting

Not long after that particular conversation, the two had left town—and almost immediately encountered two monsters like floating, oblong, mask-like globes which could open up to reveal a smaller one inside itself, and the smaller one could open up to produce three more even smaller than it. In some ways, it looked like it once could have been a doll or toy of some sort, but while they were irritating if he and Rude didn't do enough damage to the main or second one on the first shot, they weren't actually very powerful. It made Ed question exactly 'what' qualified as a monster, since that was a children's toy which had come alive, not something like the lizard-things or birds or plants he'd fought between Fort Condor and Junon.

As they neared a natural beach, Rude pointed at it and said, "Beachplugs."

"Wha—oh, right, the monsters which give Big Guard," Ed realized what the man was getting at.

He'd noted when they left town how Rude had pulled on a very high quality set of fist weapons and that his bracer—only a single one—was also good quality, but his only Command Materia was W Item (were people really _that_ bad at multi-tasking?), which let him use two items at once. He had an assortment of basic Magic Materia mostly combined with Supports, but the teen hadn't asked what they were. He felt certain Final Attack wasn't one of them because it was supposed to be quite rare, but the others were obviously useful, and one was probably an All. At least, if the fact that Rude had cast Fire 2 on a total of seven enemies was any indication, he had a Fire paired with an All. How useful, particularly as Ed was still working on his functionality with Materia rather than free-form alchemy.

The two headed down to the beach—and quickly found three of the monsters in question, which somewhat looked like squids with a shell over the head and only three tentacles. As Ed used Manipulate on one Beachplug (who came up with those names?), Rude took one of the other two out—only for the last one to get up on its three tentacles and _walk_ on them over to the big man. A moment later, Rude jumped back to avoid a series of quick strikes from the thing's shelled head, and Ed made a rather constipated face at seeing that. Seeing his expression, the dark man chuckled, then used Bolt 2 to take the attacker out, something which worked well because it was an ocean creature which was still wet with salt water.

Once those were taken care of, Ed used his control over the last Beachplug to tell it to use Big Guard on himself and Rude, which activated the appropriate array on his Enemy Skill Materia. He then took the last monster out with his sword and turned to scan the waves, where more were heading towards the shore. Since they'd gotten what they'd gone to the shore to get, the pair headed back up to the grassy path leading along the mountains towards the Mt. Corel pass, where they walked easily towards their destination.

The mountains were so nearby, yet all Ed could see was barren, dead rock. There was no Reactor near Costa del Sol, as the nearest was in Gongaga, so they weren't close enough to a Reactor to have it make the mountains look dead. He couldn't appreciate the mountains, even when he could see rock formations and plants growing, and once, even something which reminded him of a goat. That realization made him think again about Rude's text message while they had still been in town—and he really had no idea how to start appreciating it for its beauty instead of its components. As Rude kept walking, he slowed and eventually stopped while thinking about it.

"Okay, Ed?" Rude asked him, seeing how he'd stopped to stare at the cliffs beside them, turning back to face him from several steps ahead.

Shaking his head, the boy answered, "I didn't even realize I'd lost something until now. I can't see it, just a—I can't see anything but materials, how I can _use_ it, remake it, what kind of energy I'd need to do so—it's not something I can appreciate for the sake of appreciating it. The only thing I've ever truly appreciated was seeing a woman give birth to a baby...I haven't been able to see the beauty of life since then, or even before then." He paused and looked up at Rude sadly. "And I don't know how to get it back."

Taking the several steps back to the boy, he reached out and rested one large hand on his head. "Let go."

"...Let...go? Of what?" Ed asked, not sure what the man meant.

"Your power."

Wide-eyed, the younger began, "But I—"

"Stop worrying. Let someone else protect you." What Rude meant was, 'Let _me_ protect you,' and the younger man somehow understood that.

A long, shocked silence fell, the only thing anchoring the teen being the hand on his head, which was both gentle and firm. All he could register was spinning and confusion, and without the weight on his head, he may have collapsed from the disorientation it was causing. The effect was almost as bad as...or worse than...when he'd found out the main 'ingredient' in the Philosopher's Stone was living human beings.

Did he know how to give up his power? Could he trust someone else with his well-being? It meant giving someone true power over him, and he'd learned the hard way never to give anyone that, because people couldn't be trusted to 'control' others. Not to the degree Rude meant—though he also wasn't sure why Rude wanted to protect him (his first thought was that the man also saw him as weak, which didn't make things any easier to sort out). He'd trust others to watch his back, but to let go of his power, let someone else take it...As things stood, that was beyond his ability, and just trying to contemplate the concept threw him into a state of chaos.

And yet, something in his mind latched onto the idea and didn't let it go. Something in his mind wanted, very badly, to do just that, to let someone else carry the burden.

How could he reconcile the two extremes?

Finally, he burst out, "I'm not so weak I need someone else to protect me!"

Only to realize he was crying—and he couldn't stop those silent tears running down his cheeks. Closing his eyes as his breath came in trembling gasps, he struggled to get himself back under control.

"You are not weak," was the man's calm, certain answer. Before Ed quite realized it, Rude had drawn him into a hug, hiding his face in the man's chest.

It turned out to be fine despite the sudden and unexpected contact, because not only could the younger not stop the tears, but he also couldn't pull away once he had that contact—a contact he'd been lacking since his brother had become a soul in a suit of armor. Maybe he should have been creeped out by an almost-stranger hugging him, but something about Rude assured him it was okay...That he was safe. He'd never really had a father and had lost his brother to the suit of armor years ago, and there had never really been any other men in his life he'd connected to in a familial way, which was yet another loss now being made known to him. Ironically, it was a nearly silent Turk who was somehow filling the void.

When was the last time he'd felt safe being held by someone else?

With someone like Winry, he'd been the one making _her_ feel safe, but even though he hated to admit it, he _was_ only sixteen and wanted to feel that sense of security, too. Not that he didn't appreciate Winry's concern and support, because he did, but he had never felt 'safe' or 'protected' when she'd hugged him, which had happened only rarely.

The thought of Al in the suit of armor was another point of chaos in itself, largely because he really had no idea what had happened after transmuting Father. He could assume by his being on another world that his brother wasn't there with him, but at the same time, he didn't actually _know_ Al hadn't been sent to Gaia as well—his assumption was based on the fact that he had been trying to restore his brother _to Amestris_. He knew about equivalent exchange, and it wasn't actually unreasonable to say that for someone dead to return to the world alive, someone still alive would have to leave it, and Ed was the alchemist performing the transmutation, so was also the one to pay the price. Of course, that was also assuming he _had_ restored Al. This could also have been his punishment for his repeated attempt to essentially bring the dead back to life.

And Al...When was the last time he'd been able to hug his flesh-and-blood brother? Back when he was eleven and Al was ten. Cold steel wasn't exactly hug-able, unless he was covered in bruises and was using the metal to sooth the pain. He'd had someone at his back the whole time, someone with feelings, but who couldn't eat or sleep, who was completely deprived of all senses...And sometimes, Ed still wondered what he'd been thinking, why he'd trapped Al's soul in the suit of armor. He'd made his decision and had lived with the results, but had he really made the _right_ decision? The pain he'd caused his brother by doing it...how had Al stayed sane? He had a lot to regret and a lot to atone for, and somehow had to get it off his chest even a little bit to make sense of it, but he didn't think that 'sense' would come quickly.

By the time he stopped crying, wiped off his face, and pushed back from the man, he had some semblance of control over both his emotions and his thoughts.

Rude let him take a step back, then asked, "Feel better?"

It took him a moment to assess that before giving a small nod and saying, "Yes. I have no idea what actually happened, but...Thanks."

Pointing further into the mountains, the man asked, "Shall we?"

Looking in that direction for a minute, Ed gave another small nod and said, "Yeah."

It didn't escape his notice how the grass and leaves looked just a little greener, the trees a little browner, the rocks and earth richer tones of brown and gray—and the sky a deeper blue.

For the first time since he was young, since his mother's death, he was seeing something he could maybe appreciate for its own beauty.

CA

As they traveled the tracks where the empty mine carts sat waiting for new loads, they found several different kinds of healing and curative medicines and two weapons Ed could sell for good money. As much as he liked and could use a Partisan or use a Winchester (that one made him snort in amusement at the similarity to his own world), he just wouldn't at that point, and Rude informed him they sold for at least nine thousand gil each. The man carried the spear for him while he slung the rifle across his back—but damn, maybe he should consider going back to the spear...except that it would limit the number of Materia he could have on him quite a bit...

When they were about half-way to the other side of the mountains, Ed stumbled and fell to his hands and knees due to a sudden hole he'd only barely avoided getting his foot stuck in.

The strange part about the hole was the faint, greenish glow coming from inside it.

"A Mako spring," Rude said as he offered his hand to the teen. The blond took it and let the man pull him up, then both moved over to stare into the hole, trying to see past the light.

"It's in the middle of the track so I don't think it would be great to make it bigger," Ed mused. "There must be another entrance around here somewhere. Also, when we get to Corel, we should tell them about this."

"Yes. And agreed," the larger man nodded, turning to scan the nearby rocky outcroppings for signs of a hole or—preferably—a cave.

"Is there water running under this area?"

"No. North or south only."

"Then there's a good chance the entrance will be higher up and lead down, rather than already being on the lower end."

Taking a quick look around, Ed found an outcropping which he could both reach and which looked promising, so jumped up to it on a few other, smaller boulders or outcroppings. That one was larger, letting him halt and take a better look around the area. From his new vantage point, there was a higher ledge near a dark patch which may have been a cave, so he jumped up to it much the way he'd gotten to the first. At the new ledge, he stopped to look around again, seeing Rude on the ledge he'd vacated and now three potential caves, all within reach.

"There are three potentials from here!" he called to the man.

"Start close," the Turk called back.

"Here, then," the boy nodded, pointing to where he was going before making the quick, single jump and stepping into the dark patch.

It _was_ a cave, but fairly small and with two branches each about five feet deep only three feet into the cave. In one, he found a green orb which turned out to be Seal. Going back to the entrance, he found Rude just getting there, but with another two Materia in hand. Those, he offered to the teen—a Restore and an Earth—and moved to jump to the next nearest suspected cave entrance.

"Where did you find these?" Ed asked in bemusement, following the man.

"Behind rocks," was the reply, along with a pointing finger at a ledge within their reach, but which Ed had skipped because it didn't lead to any caves.

"Good find."

When they stepped into the next dark patch, they found a rather deep cave which sloped downward a bit, opened into a cavern with jagged, rock 'steps' leading down, and continued into another path which started at a ninety degree angle to the one they'd come in on. That path sloped further downward as it curved and branched into three other paths—Ed and Rude each took one branch, the two furthest to their left, both finding dead ends and more Materia—only one on Rude's and three on Ed's. The only new one had been Rude's, a W Summon Command. Both took the right-hand path, which led to another chamber which emitted the same glow they'd seen from the hole on the tracks.

In the middle of the chamber was a crystalline pillar about three feet tall with an indented top where a clear, water-like liquid had settled and was dripping slowly down the side into a clear puddle around the base of the pillar. To one side of the cavern was a rather large, ancient tree with brilliant green leaves, and some soft grass and patches of what looked like types of ground-cover herbs grew on the cavern floor. There were nearly no clear spaces. Also, a closer look at the pool at the top of the pillar and the puddle around it showed several glowing orbs, all of them green.

Rude moved forward to start collecting the Materia in the puddle, but Ed moved over to pick up the one in the top of the pillar—and his jaw fell open as he discovered what he'd just picked up. And here was one more contrived discovery.

"Rude...Now I know why they're all Magic when there's so many, not even one Command, Support, Summon, or Independent," he breathed, and Rude paused to look up at him questioningly. "This is Ultima."

The older man gave a low, impressed whistle and gave his head a bit of a shake. "Keep it—don't sell it."

"I...guess so..." the teen slowly agreed, then almost reverently put it in his bag in the keepers pouch. Rude began passing him the other Materia he'd been collecting, revealing the basic range of the ones he'd gotten from the slime leak at Fort Condor.

Once they had collected them all, they found there was another path out from the chamber besides the one they'd come in on, so they took it and found it leading them back upward. On the way, they found a few more side paths which were dead ends and two more Materia, a low-level Magic and another Added Effect.

Since Ed already had one, he asked, "Should I sell this one since I already have one?"

"Give it as a gift."

With that answer, Ed tucked it away, and they found their way out of the cave.

The exit had been the third of the caves, and as they left the cave, they walked right into a monster which reminded Ed of a green-tinged, six-legged, long-necked hippo. They were durable but not very strong so the battle didn't take long, nor was it difficult, though they _did_ have a natural ability to potentially poison a target. As they continued on their way, back on the tracks, they found more items and a staff only worth a fraction of the first two weapons Ed had found, but they also found more frequent battles. One monster looked like a type of yellow worm or caterpillar with a red, mushroom-cap-shaped head which always seemed to appear in groups of five, and another was the most normal bird he'd seen yet—except for how it cast Bolt 2 on them. It was a plain, brownish bird similar to a hawk, but had a long, forward-pointing spike on its head.

Considering what the average battle rate had been until then, Ed was shocked that they were being attacked nearly every fifteen minutes now. They passed the coal mines, clearing out all the monsters they came across on the way, and by dusk, they'd reached the end of the pass. It was once they were on the grassy valley between two mountain ranges where the monsters apparently gave up on them, so they found a good place to crash for the night, thankful for the monster repellant on the tent. Both needed a rest after that, but still...

CA

In the morning, Ed asked, "What do you think triggered that mob?"

"Ultima," Rude answered, and Ed turned to stare at him. "The only difference."

"...Before and after...Maybe you're right. Then, was that to test us or to try to...get that Materia away from us?" Rude just shrugged, so the teen sighed. "Yeah, there's really no way to answer that. Fact is, we may be attacked like that out here, too. I hope they won't, though."

"Agreed."

Soon after, they were heading towards the desert and the town of Corel. The walk was easier, and they walked for a good length of time without being attacked—but the first battle they got had three enemies, two which could have been a kind of cross between a dragonfly and a seahorse, and the last...Like the seed-plants between Fort Condor and Junon, it defied logic, especially when he saw its attack. He'd have said it was a human dressed in black, castle-joker-like clothes, except that it was hovering above the ground with some swirling cards immediately below its feet, and its attacks were based on card suits. It would throw a random card which had appeared out of nowhere, and whatever suit came up determined the attack; a heart gave the target healing, a club struck with Quake, and a spade was a form of physical attack. Also, what made him sure it wasn't human was how its mask, hat, and clothes were attached to it, not actually separate pieces it could take off. The 'mask' was just its normal face.

"No diamond," Rude commented when they'd beaten the stronger enemies. It had taken a few minutes and regular healing because the dragon-horse things had a very powerful wind attack they used frequently.

"What's special about the joker thing's diamond attack?" Ed asked curiously as they kept walking.

"It makes money."

"Someone mentioned a monster in this area throwing coins at targets—and having an instant-kill ability. Is that thing it?"

"Yes. Diamond and Joker. Not 'coins', though."

Snorting, the teen said, "Nice, the Joker is death, then. Not coins, though?"

Rude obviously didn't want to talk further, so took out his PHS and sent a text message, instead. Ed opened it and read:

 _When it pulls a diamond suit card, the items it throws can range from fool's gold to actual diamonds, from pure gold to glass beads. The sales of those items to general store merchants or pawn shops can make a great deal of money, depending on what it throws. With your luck, we'll get showered with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds._

Snorting again, the teen said, "Yeah, I seem to be having that kind of luck, don't I? I won't count on it holding out, though, because there's usually a specific reason for my 'luck', and if the thing doesn't fit into that 'reason', I'm not so likely to get what I want out of it. Currently, 'Materia' is the basis for my luck, so getting showered with precious gems may not happen. It'll make our lives easier if it does, though."

The man's amusement was palpable as two of the joker-things launched an attack on them—and both gave them an opening salvo of diamond cards. Both hit Ed in the head, making him yelp, "Ouch!" It had felt like getting pelted with a bunch of small rocks from a kid skidding to a stop on their bicycle back in Resembool, back when he'd been five and six years old. That was the only time the diamond card came up, but the array of glittering gems and metals around his position at the start of the battle stayed, even after the pair were defeated. The only thing Ed found himself grateful for was that it apparently took them actual time to conjure a card which would determine their attack, so they could only attack so many times and so quickly—he and Rude had the upper hand in terms of speed and ease of attack.

After the battle, he went back to the array of objects on the ground and began sifting through the closest ones. "Do you know anything about gems and metals, Rude?"

"Not much."

"Then could you gather them all up for me so I have them in reach to assess them for what they _are_ and their value?"

So, as the boy began separating the ones around him into three distinct piles, the man gathered them up and began piling them in the area Ed was clearing, well within the younger's reach. While Rude was still concerned about how the teen couldn't let go of his 'need' to be in control, it was admittedly impressive watching him sort the items as though he _knew exactly_ what was what and its likely value. Two piles quickly took form as valuable and not, but the third puzzled him—that one looked like bits of metals and gems which had value as well.

"What's the third pile?" Rude asked as he set the last of the gems and metals down and pointed at the one he meant.

"I know a lot of things about gems and metals—I had to learn that, to look at just about anything and determine what its basic building blocks were—but even though I know _what_ those are made of, I don't recognize it as any specific kind of gem or metal, so I can't judge their value. I mean, they obviously _are_ a gem or metal, but not one I know off-hand by name, like diamond or silver."

Picking up a few of the silvery fragments of metal in the small collection, the man pulled off his shades to look more closely at them. After a minute, he frowned and said, "Looks like Mythril."

"Is it valuable?" Ed asked absently.

Rude's brows rose and he asked, "Mythril Armlet?"

After a pause, the teen's head shot up and he blinked. "Oh. Valuable enough."


	8. 08-Harpy Nest

Harpy Nest

Soon after, they reached the edge of the desert, Ed's brow twitching a bit as he saw the sand and felt the heat. "I hate deserts..."

Rude said nothing, just kept walking, so the younger of the pair quickly caught up, even as he noticed dunes in surprisingly uniform lines across the sandy landscape. They were near a stable trail, at least, or a stable enough one that they could follow it, but as the man knew where he was going already, Ed followed him. It didn't take them long to bypass one of the uniform dunes, and from the top of it, he could see a large expanse of the desert. It was the singularly strangest desert he'd ever seen, looking more like a sinkhole trap than an actual desert, surrounded by constantly-seeping rock ridges which created curtains of falling sand like quicksand. He could only see two levels, but it looked like a third, the very bottom of the desert, had begun to form—but then he had to ask how the lower middle of the desert wasn't full of sand to bring it to the same level as the next highest level.

As they walked, Ed gradually became aware of a small, dark spot on the horizon which started forming building and tree shapes as they got closer, so he assumed the spot was Corel, their destination. The walk seemed to be going well, and Rude was taking them the most direct path, so Ed was happy knowing he'd soon be able to rest and cool down a bit.

His happy thoughts of an inn and a bath were interrupted by a monster bursting out of the sand below them with a shriek, knocking Rude down and trapping Ed's feet in the rapidly-flowing sand surging downwards to fill the hole. The boy was braced for an attack by the—chimera-looking thing he wasn't able to get a good look at—but it didn't attack them, it just fled rapidly across the sand, wings carrying it further and faster than feet alone would have. The lack of attack was great, except for the fact that the sand was still flowing downward, and taking Ed with it.

"Rude!" he shouted, reaching out for the man as the sand swallowed him, seeing how the man made a grab at his hand while trying to avoid getting dragged down himself. That was the last thing he saw before his head was submerged.

Rather than hitting something solid and getting buried in sand (which would have simultaneously crushed and suffocated him), he found himself momentarily weightless, then a sensation like falling. He hit a sloped surface while still surrounded by a curtain of sand, and couldn't get his footing in the loose surface. Before he quite realized it, he was landing flat on his back on solid rock, sand dust floating around him so he couldn't see a damned thing, but he was no longer caught in a stream of sand. He could still hear the sand pouring down nearby, so settled for using a bit of alchemy to convert part of his shirt into a cloth filter so he didn't inhale any more of the dust than he already had.

For the next half-hour or so, he laid there quietly while the sand poured down and finally settled, and when it finally stopped, he opened his eyes to look around. There was still a lot of dust in the air, but it was starting to settle, so he started pushing himself up, seeing the now quite large pile of sand nearby. Light shone down on the pile, but the sun streaming in from above also let him see a bit of his new surroundings, which largely consisted of small spots of light shining down on small piles of sand until the point where the rock floor gave way to—water?

"Edward!" he heard a yell from above him, so he looked up through the last of the settling dust to judge the distance.

"Get a rope, at least a hundred feet!" Ed yelled back. "Don't come down, just make sure you can anchor the rope so I can get back up!" Hearing a growling sound from one side made the teen turn to face it—and come face-to-face with another of the same monster which had opened the hole in the first place.

"Understood!" Rude yelled back, and silence fell above, so Ed just gazed at the monster, which itself was staring at him and still growling softly and threateningly.

It was an obviously mixed creature which made no sense, making him think of a chimera on his own world. The base seemed to be a horse's hindquarters, a lion's forequarters and one lion-like head, but it also had eagle wings, a goat-like head, a snake's head, and another head he couldn't quite define as a lizard's or bird's head, or a combination of the two. It was largely tawny brown in color, but the goat's head was nearly white and the undefined predator's head was dark gray—and the snake's was green, the only majorly-contrasting color in the beast's scheme. How could it function with so many heads?

A yipping sound coming from behind the creature made Ed look—only to see three smaller versions of the 'chimera' behind it.

Lovely.

But was this the mother, or was the one who had left the mother? Also, if it had been a chimera, it couldn't have reproduced, so as strange as the creature was, it was a natural one which had a rightful place and existence on Gaia. Wait, hadn't it been in the Enemy Skill list? A Harpy or something? Could he Manipulate the adult until he left the cavern? He didn't think the babies could do him much harm, as they didn't even seem to have fangs yet, so his only real concern was the adult—and the fact that it would be best if he didn't touch the babies in case that made the mother reject them.

So, he tried Manipulate, and it worked easily, calming the monster and making it stay in place. As its skills imprinted in his mind, he snorted and made the 'Harpy' use Aqualung on him, as that was indeed one of the Enemy Skills he needed to learn—but _damn_ did that one hurt! He was grateful for the potions he still had on him after taking that attack, and to think he'd done it deliberately. He made a mental note not to do that again in future with monster attack spells unless there was specifically no other way to learn them.

The babies gathered around the adult's feet, so he directed it to 'tend to the babies'. It did, so he turned his attention back to the cavern. The fact that it was a source of water was probably a strong point in favor of why monsters were nesting in it, but it was also a milder temperature than the desert surface, and the water probably helped maintain that cooler temperature. Going to the water, he transmuted the cloth around his face back into his shirt and used some nearby rock to make a cup he could use to get a drink. As he did, he realized there was a glow in the water, like a small cluster of glowing eggs—something he wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been staring at the water while savoring his drink.

After a minute, he gave a little smirk, stripped down entirely (even letting his hair down), and dove into the water, aiming for the glow he could see. Thank 'God' auto-mail wasn't affected by water! It took only seconds to get to them, and in the glow of the orbs, he could also see shell remains—were these the eggs the baby Harpies had come from? If so, the 'Aqualung' attack actually made sense, as it looked like they were born underwater and would have to swim to the surface on their own power. Either way, he knew he couldn't touch the orbs safely—other than maybe the red one, but he could only get to it by moving others—so swam back to the surface and to the pile he'd left his clothes in to find the white gloves he'd transmuted back at Fort Condor.

A glance at the adult of the Harpies showed it 'glaring' at him again, so he refreshed the effect of Manipulate before pulling the gloves on and diving down again to examine the nest and the Materia orbs again. As much as he would have liked to just raid the nest, it looked like the orbs had specifically been set there, and like multiple layers of eggs were also there, so took a moment to consider what he wanted to do. He headed straight up to the surface so he could breathe while he thought, scanning his memories of animals back home. There were usually reasons why they did things, so he probably shouldn't just take all the orbs away from the nest, and should move as few of them as possible in taking the ones he wanted.

That decided, he dove back down and ran his fingers over the orbs quickly. Most were Fire, Ice, Bolt, Restore, Heal, and Earth. He had no urgent need for any of those with what he'd already found to sell, so settled for taking the first purple Materia he'd come across, the single red one, the single yellow one, and a few green ones. In total, he'd taken six of the two dozen gathered there, and got back to the surface quickly, putting them down on his clothes before pulling himself from the water to cover them with his shirt. Since he was enjoying the cool water, he swam more, not really paying much attention to what was happening in the rest of the cavern—

Until he surfaced at the edge of the pool, only for a large paw to tuck under his rump and forcibly lift him out of the water (which produced a startled yelp) so he was tucked against a warm, furry body. Since he wasn't in any pain and it didn't look like he'd be in any for some time, he looked up at the adult Harpy, then looked around for the babies—and found them sleeping, piled on his clothes around where he'd left the Materia orbs. Looking back at the adult, he found it nudging him in the direction of the babies, so blinked at the monster for a minute before moving over to lay down curled around the little ones. When neither anger nor injury were forth-coming, he tucked his arm under his head and closed his eyes to think.

How had he apparently been adopted? His diving and swimming? That was really the only thing that made sense, since his diving in particular would have potentially acted as a means of 'proving himself worthy of survival' if what he suspected about the eggs was true. He was sure Rude would laugh, not realizing this wouldn't be the first time he'd tamed some kind of monster without even trying. Though, normally when he gained allies, it was because he'd helped them without asking for anything in return, not just because he'd gone swimming. And the adult didn't seem to mind that he'd taken some of the orbs...

Opening his eyes so he could see his right arm—he was lying on his left side—he examined the limb from fingers to shoulder. It was a normal arm, except for the wicked scarring around the upper shoulder joint from the auto-mail port he'd had attached to it until Al had sacrificed his soul to give that arm back to him. He'd given up that arm to get his brother's soul back, meaning 'Truth' had decided Al's soul was only worth Ed's arm. It was oddly simple to realize the process could happen in reverse, but also the most painful thing he'd gone through besides the discovery of the Philosopher's Stone's main ingredient. To him, Al's soul had been worth a lot more than that, and for him to have realized what his brother had done in the battle against Father...He'd pretty much gone crazy—and beaten Father to a pulp because of what he'd forced Al to do, to sacrifice. The scars he had been left with had been hidden under his shirt until then, since he'd been on the Planet...Did he want anyone else to see them?

Speaking of the scars, did he want anyone to see his auto-mail leg? That had a whole host of problems of its own, as the leg wasn't going to grow with him and he hadn't yet seen evidence of technology which could replicate the functionality of auto-mail. If it was damaged or he outgrew it, what then? He was only sixteen, and while he hadn't grown much in the last years, that didn't mean he wouldn't grow enough to throw his balance off in the years coming up. If he'd been in his twenties, he wouldn't have to worry about it, but as things stood, he'd have to find an engineer and mechanic who could at least replicate the limb, if not the ports attached to his leg.

Not yet, though.

He was still trying to figure out who he could trust, so there was no point in jumping into that. His last adjustment had been within the last month, so he had time before it would become a problem.

Sitting up with a sigh, he nudged the babies off his clothes as he said, "Okay guys, I need my clothes now, or I won't be able to meet Rude. Well, who knows? Maybe he'd like seeing me bare—but that's not really appropriate when he'll probably be with others when he gets back with the rope."

The adult made an amused rumbling sound from behind him as he managed to reclaim his underwear, pants, and shirt, pulling them on before reaching for his boots. Did it somehow understand what he said, or was it just amused by him 'playing' with the babies?

Once dressed, Ed let the babies climb in his lap to sleep as he pulled his gloves on again and picked up the Materia one at a time to touch them to the back of his bare arm. The first he picked up was the Magic he'd come across called Mirage (1), of which he'd actually found two. It turned out to have the spells on it for Multi and Invis, the first which would create duplicate images of him to take two attacks in his place, and the second which would make him invisible—in all ways—for about two minutes before it would have to be refreshed. One of those was a keeper for sure, and the last of the three green orbs he'd brought to the surface was just another Seal, which he'd taken because it would give him decent money. Apparently Summons could 'sleep' and Titan was doing a good job of it, so Ed checked to see that his array had an Earth base. The Command was Manipulate, which made him snort in amusement, and the Independent turned out to be Guard Plus (2), a boost to his natural physical defense. As he already had Manipulate but not the other two, he set the Command in his 'sell' pouch and kept Titan and Guard Plus.

With that sorted and ready to go, he laid down on his back to wait for Rude to let him know he was back, absently playing with his drying hair with one hand while the other was tucked under his head to cushion it. That reminded him, he'd have to put his hair back in its usual braid before climbing up the rope. His gaze stayed upward at the ceiling as one of the babies shuffled up to sleep on his chest, but the motion reminded him of his 'adoption', making him wonder if the adult Harpy would even let him leave. He'd have no worries if he was taken as another adult, but he was pretty sure the adult was taking him as a baby—much to his chagrin. Then again, humans were smaller than Harpies in general so it would be hard for a Harpy to take one as anything other than a 'child'. It still meant the adult may try to keep him in the nest.

He gave an amused grin as he pondered Rude's possible reactions to him being adopted by a Harpy.

"Edward!" the man yelled right then.

"Yeah, I'm here! Got the rope?" he called back, shooing the baby off his chest so he could sit and start braiding his hair behind his head.

"He's still alive in the Harpy nest?" someone asked in amazement, and Ed snorted.

"Yes. Here," Rude called, and there was some flurry of movement before a rope fell down from the hole he'd fallen in from.

Since Edward had finished braiding his hair, it was the work of a moment to tie it off and grab his bag and the Winchester he'd been carrying around as he rose, nudging the baby Harpies off his lap. The adult lifted its heads to watch him as he made his way to the rope and gave a hard tug on it to make sure it was secure, then pulled the bag and gun on so his hands were free to climb with. Looking at the adult, who had risen, he decided to err on the side of caution and used Manipulate on it once more to make it stay with its actual babies.

"Thank you," he told it, then started climbing. It didn't take long.

At the top, the bright sun nearly blinded him and hands were grabbing him to pull him up and onto solid ground. A familiar hand on his head stabilized him and made him look up with a smile as the others began packing the truck up.

"All right?" the man asked in concern, eyes scanning his body for injury.

"Yes, great. Can we leave before Manipulate wears off, please?" Ed asked in amusement—and the others stared, then laughed.

"Hop in, you two," one of the men in the back of the truck called. "Free lift back to Corel. It beats walking in this heat."

"Sure, sounds great!" the teen agreed readily, grinning as he slipped out from under Rude's hand and made for the back of the truck. The older man was on his heels, and they both quickly got in the back so the truck could pull away and head for the town.

"How many Harpies were there?" one of the younger guys, the same who had invited the two to join them, asked as everyone settled in sitting positions. Two guys were in the front and four in the back, along with Ed and Rude, who were side-by-side.

"Shut it, Dyne," a larger, black one answered, rolling his eyes. He was easily the darkest man Ed had ever seen, and easily twice as dark as any Ishbalan (and much darker than Rude) as a result.

"Only one adult, and the babies were, well...they didn't even have teeth yet, so I ignored them," Ed told the one called Dyne. "Manipulate on the adult kept it calm, so there was no issue."

"You saw some babies?" one of the older men asked in amazement.

"Three of them. They're oddly cute when they're small, like puppies with four heads," Ed laughed, shifting to lean his back against Rude's arm.

That produced laughs as the same older man said, "I'll admit none of us really thought you'd survive long enough for us to get back when Rude came to ask for rope. You're something else—got a good head on your shoulders."

"It's just common sense. The easiest thing to do against a monster is Manipulate, since you can just keep it from doing anything at all that way," the sixteen-year-old shrugged. "It doesn't even matter if the thing's angry when you activate it."

"True dat," the black man beside Dyne agreed. "Still means you got a good head on your shoulders."

"Barret, when we get back, go to the inn ahead of our visitors—they'll need to stop at the shops first, if what they're carrying on them is anything to go by," the second of the old men cut in suddenly.

"Sure," the black man agreed with a grin.

Soon after, they were in town and the truck had stopped outside a fair-sized building with signs for all the shop types there. Barret immediately jumped from the truck and headed towards the far side of the square they were in, and a large well made up the middle of said square. As the rest of the local men called farewells to them, Rude and Ed stepped inside the shop building, finding three counters in the room. Weapons, armors, and other gear were at the one to the far side, Materia was in the middle at a smaller counter, and the general store was closest to the entrance.

Since they had three weapons to sell, they headed to that counter, first. Ed began scanning what was available there—which wasn't much—as Rude handed over the spear and staff he'd been carrying, then Ed pulled off the gun on his back. The gun was worth nine thousand gil, the spear nine thousand five hundred, and the staff a mere twelve hundred and fifty in comparison. Since there was nothing they wanted to buy there, the next stop was the Materia counter, where Ed pulled out the ones he wanted to sell and put them on the counter, producing a paper, box, and list much like he'd seen at Fort Condor:

Manipulate x 1 5000G = 5000G

Seal x 2 1500G = 3000G

Heal x 3 750G = 2250G

Earth x 3 750G = 2250 G

Poison x 2 750G = 1500G

Restore x 3 375G = 1125G

Lightning x 4 300G = 1200G

Ice x 3 300G = 900G

Fire x 3 300G = 900G

For some reason, the list amused Ed, so he chuckled and looked at Rude to say, "See, I seem to get a lot of Materia windfalls. Did you want any of them before I finalize the sale?" The man shook his head, so the blond looked at the man and said, "Then, that's everything, and you can total it. In the meantime, I'll have a look at your Materia to see if there's any I want to buy."

The shopkeeper agreed and began the calculation as Ed brushed his fingers over the samples out on the counter, finding only one which interested him only because one of its base spells was to shrink things. Its cost was five thousand gil, so he held the Transform Materia up for the shopkeeper to see. The five thousand was deducted off the total for the Materia being sold, and Ed was given the difference.

Finally, they went over to the general store's counter and asked her about the gems and metals they'd picked up, and she asked to see them. Some, she said they should sell in Costa del Sol, Gongaga, or Cosmo Canyon, but a set of two particular gems in deep purple, what she called purple illusion stones, she said Ed should keep for the blacksmith near Gongaga—not the one in town. Anything she didn't allocate to those other places, she bought herself, though most of those were the cheaper gems or metals the coal miners actually used.

Once they got to the inn and paid fifty gil for a room, the pair ate and turned in early to rest, though when Ed counted his money, he was impressed to find he now had fifty-three thousand gil in bills with a spare eight coins. When he told the total to his traveling companion, the man took it to do a quick count of his own, then handed it back. It would have been higher if he'd sold the other Mirage, but he'd kept it instead.

"Is it enough?" Rude asked as they laid down in their respective beds.

"For the moment, yes. No more looking for it—we'll probably find more, but this will cover inns and upgrades for a bit, so I don't think we need to do what we did in Mount Corel. Anyway, thanks and good night." Ed was asleep right away from exhaustion.

 **Notes:**

(1) Mirage: I created this type of Materia to function similarly to others like it, but to include spells existing in most previous Final Fantasy games.

(2) Guard Plus: I also created this because I never understood why no Independent Materia existed to boost the same stats the Magic Materia keep diminishing in the FFVII game. It will also have another use later in the story.


	9. 09-Gongaga Area

Gongaga Area

In the morning, Edward and Rude left Corel, heading south towards Gongaga. Past the desert was a river which looked like it should have had a bridge across it, but the bridge had been destroyed, leaving only some debris in a section of shallow rapids and the moorings on the shores. The likelihood of being able to cross it on foot was—small, to say the least, so both stopped and looked at the damage for a minute.

"Oh, dear..." Rude sighed at last.

Pausing, Ed looked between the rocks and debris in the river, the moorings, and Rude, wondering if he should let the man see what he could _really_ do. He was still leery of showing those skills in a world where alchemy wasn't known any longer, but circumstance called for it, and going back wouldn't help him. More, Veld had already been being very lenient towards his requests, but asking for help to cross a river would probably be pushing it. Did he trust the man at his side enough to show him...?

"I'll ask for—" Rude began, pulling out his PHS.

"No!" the boy instinctively burst out, making the man freeze and turn to stare at him.

...Logically, the man would see his alchemy when they got to Cosmo Canyon.

Sighing, Ed said, "Sorry for the outburst, but...Are you reporting back to Veld—or anyone in Shinra—while you're with me?"

"No," the man answered, head tipped to the side in clear curiosity.

Pausing for a moment, the younger of the pair began stripping off his bracers and weapons, handing each one to Rude as he got it off. As he worked, he asked, "You remember what I was talking with Genesis about, right?"

"Materia information overload."

Nodding, the blond said, "The arrays he and I were talking about are a lot more complex than they seem to be at first glance. What I _didn't_ say before is that I can use those arrays without Materia in hand—I can even create my own." He stopped as he handed the last bracer to a surprised Rude, then turned back to face the river. "One of the things I didn't even tell Genesis is that I don't need to _draw_ an array to make it work, because I know how to turn my own body into the array I need. This is the result."

He then walked over to stand between the moorings on their side of the river, clapped his hands, and put them down on the ground with the clear intent to use the rock and bridge debris to remake a solid bridge. Electrical currents flashed along the ground and the water to the far side of the river, the currents hued green as the rock and metal his attention was focused on began moving, shifting, and reforming. The debris and rock melded together into a smooth arch wide enough for a vehicle to pass, anchored where the original moorings had been and with a pair of mid-river support pillars anchored into the riverbed.

Soon after, the light had cleared, the bridge formed, so Ed stood straight and turned to face the man warily. Rude's hands had sagged to his sides, his grip only barely maintaining itself on the items the boy had given him to hold. Shock permeated his stance, along with confusion, but there was nothing more to it than that, yet. He had seen what people could do, how they could change, when presented with something they didn't understand, something which looked god-like, so until the older man had finished processing what he'd just seen, there was no telling if he'd react badly.

While waiting for the dark-skinned man to decide on how to handle things, the teen walked over to the newly-formed bridge and sat on the rail, legs dangling down over the water. Looking upstream let him track water levels more easily to see if that was what had destroyed the last bridge, so he amused himself with trying to assess what had taken place and how long ago. Fairly recently, he figured, and it had happened on a river which didn't seem to have a habit of rising very high on its cycles, so he had to wonder why it had not long ago. Was it a fifty or hundred-year cycle?

"You're doing it again," Rude said quietly as he leaned on the rail beside the boy.

"Doing what?" Ed asked, keeping his eyes on the riverbanks in his view.

"Calculating, not enjoying."

"...Is there something to enjoy right now?"

After a moment, a hand rested firmly on his shoulder. "Thank you."

Somehow, those two words meant more than the teen could say, and his eyes slid shut for a moment in relief. "You don't mind?"

"It's interesting."

"I mean that I didn't share it with you."

"I know."

"You're not helping..."

Rude paused for a minute, then slid his shades off and took Ed's chin to make the blond meet his gaze. "It's your life. There are people who would harm you, so you're right to be cautious in sharing it."

For a minute, Ed searched the man's brown eyes with his own golden, then came to an abrupt decision and said, "Touch my left knee."

With a startled blink, the man moved one hand down to the indicated knee to grip it firmly—and blinked. "Metal?"

"It's a prosthetic linked into my nervous system so it functions like my normal leg," the teen explained. "I can't feel touch or heat or cold, things like that, but I can, like, flex my toes like any normal person, even go swimming without damaging the circuitry. The only problem is in getting a replacement if this one is damaged or I outgrow it, because the creator is—dead—and never passed on her notes to anyone else. It's pretty durable since it's a chrome alloy, but it's not indestructible. Anyway, just to warn you if you ever see my legs—though I tend to keep them covered around others."

Nodding, Rude gave a small, wry smile and said, "It makes you human." He slipped his shades back on and stepped back from the rail, then held a hand out to Ed in an offer to help him down from his perch.

Ed took the hand to hop down from the rail, then he replaced the gear he'd removed to show Rude what he could really do and they continued on their way over the newly-made bridge and into the Gongaga area. Nothing much happened to them on the way, though they were getting into more humid, jungle-like areas where one of the enemies was a frog called a Touch Me which turned Ed into a frog. While he earned the skill Frog Song for his Enemy Skill Materia, he could have done without Rude laughing at him. They weren't hard battles, just irritating, because the Touch Mes were determined to try transforming whatever they attacked into frogs, and frogs could only use items or do a basic, weak attack.

By the time they reached Gongaga, they'd met three pairs of frogs, and Ed was furious. The village was _very_ small, but there were two shop buildings, both small, and the Materia shop had one new Materia he wanted, a Time Magic for six thousand gil. He hadn't looked at what was in the general store when he'd sold the items the Corel shopkeeper had said Gongaga would want, but he'd checked the weapons and armor (in the second building for the blacksmith), only to find nothing of value. By the time he'd gotten everything done he wanted to do, Rude was waiting with a short, white cape in his hands—which he shoved into Ed's.

"What?" the boy asked in confusion, noting how the material seemed to be silk with something slippery—but not slimy—on it. The cape fell to about his hips, though on Rude, it would have fallen only to just above the elbow.

"To stop the frogs," the man answered. "Keep it."

Jaw dropping open, Ed asked, "You're seriously giving me a gift?"

"Shouldn't I?" Rude asked in reply with a raised brow.

"I'll get you something—"

"You did already."

With a confused frown, the boy asked, "When?"

For a moment, the older of the pair stared at the younger, then said, "You did."

When Ed just looked more confused, the man took out his PHS to type a message, which the teen received shortly thereafter, and read:

 _It's when you do and say things like this that I can tell you really aren't an adult, that you were forced to grow up too quickly. You're strong and capable, but the burden of that meant you never had the chance to learn or experience things only children are able to learn and experience. But tell me...when your mother gave you things before she passed on, what do you think you were giving back to her?_

Scratching the back of his head after reading the message, the sixteen-year-old thought back to when he was still a little kid and his mother had still been alive. What _had_ he given back to her? All he really remembered was the sense of loss at her death which had led to Al and him trying to revive her, and the results of that—

His gaze suddenly moved down to his auto-mail leg, then back up to Rude as he realized he'd never questioned his mother, his brother, or Winry and her family giving him gifts, and he'd even randomly given gifts back to them. The simplest reason was because that's what people who cared did for each other, and in that case, his trust and companionship was a gift in itself. Not to mention, if he wanted to be technical, he'd been paying for their rooms and food as they traveled, but the key point was in what he'd shared with Rude at the transmuted bridge.

"...Really? Just this?" Ed whispered.

Rude's only answer was a gentle, firm, thump on the shoulder.

Not long after, they left town, Ed wearing the White Cape so he wouldn't get turned into a frog again. The first place they went was the Reactor right near the town, where Ed found a Ramuh Summon—he was aloof, but at least greeted Ed in an elderly man's voice—but it seemed the Reactor was in better shape and they found no other Materia. There were also no visible leaks.

As they were leaving the Reactor, however, something which looked like a triceratops from the waist up and a land rover from the waist down came barreling down on them from inside the Reactor walls. Ed was able to jump aside, but Rude was knocked back and into a tree which shook violently—and dropped a yellow orb onto the monster's head, making it stop and roar up at a perceived enemy from above. The teen took the moment of the monster's distraction to attack it with both magic and his weapons, making its attention go to him. Because of its speed and bulk, it was a little more difficult than normal to beat it, but there was no way anything as big as it could keep up with the boy's constant motion in combat, so he had it defeated with no issue.

When he landed on the ground after it fell, Ed saw the yellow orb and picked it up to see what it was and what it did. "Deathblow?" he asked in surprise, trying to puzzle out how it worked without actually touching it to his bare skin.

"Either a super-powered strike or a miss," Rude filled in.

Since the man was back on his feet, Ed held the orb out to him and asked, "Do you want it? It's not like _I'll_ use it, since I don't fight that way."

At first, Rude seemed to hesitate, but then took it with a smile and a, "Thank you."

"Do you mind if we go see the blacksmith the shopkeeper in Corel was talking about, then go back to Gongaga to rest?" Ed asked as they headed back into the forest. The battles with the frogs were much easier now that he couldn't be turned into a frog himself, so he was much happier, especially when he realized there was also a type of lizard-like monster in the area which cast a slow-petrify on its targets.

"It's this way," the man immediately offered, taking the lead towards the blacksmith's home, which turned out to be by the ocean on the river they'd crossed to get to the Gongaga area. They were still south of the river, which was much wider at that point, but mainly out in grasslands where they fought one battle against a monster similar to a hairless gorilla with a bull-like head with impressive horns.

At the house and forge, an aged man was sitting on a chair leaning against the side of the house, a cup of something in his hand and eyes closed as he apparently rested. "I'm not taking orders right now—got enough to do for Shinra. Go back wherever you came from and try again later."

"Good afternoon, Sieg," Rude said in reply, which made the man's eyes open in mild surprise.

"...You're not in your uniform, Rude. Does your boss know that?" Sieg asked in a rather dry tone which produced a small smile from the dark-skinned man. The older, graying man then took note of the boy with the Turk and asked, "Who's the kid?"

"Edward wanted to meet you," the younger replied.

When Sieg's gaze went to Ed, the boy held up the two stones the shopkeeper had called 'purple illusion stones'—which looked like a purple variant of tiger's eye to him—and said, "I was told these would mean something to you. Do they?"

The graying man blinked, then blinked again and asked, "Where did you get them?"

"Would you believe me if I told you a pair of Jokers pelted me with them?" the blond boy asked in amusement. "I seem to have come by a string of luck in collecting things, and these are just one part of that, but I'd like to know why they were specifically noted as something—precious."

"...The Joker's diamond card?" Sieg repeated, eyes on Rude, who nodded along with Ed. "Well, that wasn't coincidence if that's the case." He closed his eyes with a sigh, then said, "Unfortunately, I don't have the rest of the pieces to make a weapon which would use illusion stones, so without the other pieces, I can't help you."

"What kinds of weapons could you make with them?" the sixteen-year-old asked. He was now _really_ curious.

"Depends on what you want," the man replied, opening his dark eyes again to meet Ed's golden. "You don't like heavy weapons, which is a good start—illusion stones don't like to be weighed down, and will crack and break in a weapon too heavy. The point of having them in the crafting becomes moot if that happens. The effects are singularly unique depending on the stone color, the weapon type, and the other materials used in the crafting. So, what kind of weapon would you want, of the ones you can use?"

For a minute, Ed had to consider the question, then said tentatively, "I'd probably have to say a sword similar in weight and dimensions to a rapier."

With a nod, the man said, "Which covers several useful styles of blades. They'll all need metal in sufficient quantity. Wait here so I can grab some sample styles I have here." He rose and went inside the cabin, where he stayed for several minutes.

When he returned, he was carrying a bundle of leather wound around several of what were obviously types of swords. Laying the bundle on the ground at the boy's feet, the older man unrolled it to show the sword types. Ed examined them closely as the man explained each to him, but only asked to test the weight and heft of two. While he was fine using other kinds of general weapons at the moment, if this was supposed to be a sword tailor-made for him, it had better be the right one, so with that in mind, he was going to be particular. One type was a slender, fairly straight variant of a cutlass which had a slightly narrower base which gradually widened slightly on the cutting edge until it tapered into a point, and the other was a katana—a Japanese folded steel sword with a delicately curved blade which was light and could be used one handed or two. Well, on Gaia, the 'katana' would have been a Wutain sword, but the comparison was close enough.

Once he'd looked at the two and set them side-by-side to contemplate them, the blacksmith offered, "You know, rather than trying to pick one, why don't you let me merge them? It has to be a custom blade, anyway."

"Merge them?" Ed asked in surprise, blinking as he considered some options of how the two could possibly be merged, then slowly nodded. "That could work, couldn't it? So, what else would I need to bring you so you could forge it, and what should I do with the stones in the meantime?"

"Keep the stones on you, and bring me a branch of Mako-infused wood—you'll likely find that at a natural Mako spring—and some metal of the type you want the steel alloy to be. Any craftable metal works as long as it's not too soft—no gold blades—or as hard as something like titanium. The quantity you bring me has to be enough for at least one blade, but the more you bring, within reason, the more I'll be able to experiment to find just the right balance and form for the weapon. The wood has to be enough for the hilt, but I'll only make the hilt for the finished product. If you want to go the whole nine yards, you can also bring me an appropriate quantity of cloth or leather you want the grip wrapped in, but nothing too smooth or silky—a sword you can't keep your grip on is useless. I'll also make sure there are Materia slots on it, even though these samples don't show slots," Sieg explained. "Got all that?"

"Yeah—Mako-infused wood for the hilt, enough of a metal of my choice for at least one blade, and cloth or leather for the grip if I want. I'll keep my eyes open for them, then. Thanks!" Ed listed, feeling quite pleased with the pending results.

"All done, then?" Rude asked the two.

"Until I have all the materials, yes," Sieg nodded. "Now go away so I can finish my break before I get back to forging Shinra's swords for the Wutain War."

"Thanks again, and bye!" Ed called as he practically skipped back towards Gongaga. Rude gave Sieg a wave and followed the younger boy.

Needless to say, Ed now had something new to contemplate and calculate while they stayed overnight at the inn in Gongaga. Morning came quickly, and the pair set out for Cosmo Canyon fairly early, crossing jungle, grasslands, and riverbanks as they headed west. They were nearing the natural ford where they would cross the river and head into the canyons north of them that evening when Ed saw a purple sparkle in the river, so dove in to grab it. The water was surprisingly warm, comparatively speaking, and once he'd grabbed the orb—a Speed Plus Independent—he returned to Rude so they could set up camp, letting himself dry naturally in the heat. Of course, even though it was now evening, the heat was still nearly as strong as it was midday, so it didn't take his clothes and hair long to dry.

As the two sat at the campfire to eat some of their travel food and Ed had pulled off his bracers to examine them while he ate, Rude asked, "How?"

"How what?" the teen asked slightly dazedly as he looked up. He saw the man motion at the two bracers, so frowned in confusion and asked again, "How what?"

"Deficiencies," the man offered, hoping that was enough of an explanation.

"Oh, that—the number of Materia I have without suffering for it, right?" When Ed got a nod back, he said, "They don't affect me." When he saw Rude frown in confusion, he went on, "It's not limited to the deficiencies, but affects the benefits as well, whatever 'it' is. I neither gain nor lose anything no matter how many Materia I have slotted, so I have to use them only based on my own abilities, but at least things like my strength and defensive abilities don't suffer for it. On the other hand, the effects will never hit harder than their own base power, or the number of casts I'll be able to manage will never increase. Of course, some of that could probably be modified with specialized training of my mind and body, but I'm already well-trained, so I honestly don't think those things _can_ be modified much."

After a silence, Rude nodded thoughtfully and said, "Makes sense." He paused, then went on, "Don't look too impressive."

"You mean because of people who can't be trusted?" the teen asked, which earned another nod. "I've always been the odd man out, and drawn a lot of attention as a result. Even bad attention. There's actually a balance to it—being just impressive enough so everyone knows you, but just uninteresting enough so the majority think of it as too much of a hassle to pursue. In its own right, the Turks being interested in me but no one else particularly caring means I've struck that balance, and only got the Turks' attention due to sheer dumb luck. I mean, if Freyra hadn't seen me fight the Hell Rider, things would be a lot different now."

"...Do you regret it?"

"The Turks' interest?"

"Yes."

"No."

After a silence, the man asked, "You know what we do?"

Giving him a wry grin, the blond nodded. "You do spy work and take care of Shinra's dirty laundry—murder, kidnapping, and the like. I've even gone so far in my thoughts to consider the fact that if he really wants me, Veld will be able and willing to offer me missions I'll actually be _able_ to do." Looking up at the sky, Ed sighed and said, "It's not great, but I've killed before. I hate doing it, but sometimes, there's no other option. I can't murder a non-combatant, but if I was sent to find out if someone was a danger and the first thing they did when they saw me was attack with the intent to kill, I'd retaliate and not be—too torn up by killing them. I'm sure there are enough qualifying missions for me to earn my keep," he said impishly to Rude.

"And there are," the dark man agreed with a smile.

They turned in shortly after, lulled to sleep by the sound of the nearby river.


	10. 10-Pinnacle

Pinnacle

After eating and packing up in the morning, the pair set off again, reaching the ford in less than half an hour, crossing the smoothly-flowing river, and continuing on into the canyon known as Cosmo Canyon, just like the town's name. It was deep and red, a desert with walls which concentrated the heat between them, alternately with turning sun-less corners and paths icy cold. Ed was suddenly very thankful he only had one auto-mail limb to concern himself with, because the rapid shifts between boiling heat and freezing cold were really hard on the system, especially where the port was anchored to his thigh, something he remembered from Lior and the northern border.

Only two things of note happened besides how they spent the whole day sweating buckets. The first was how they fought a thing like a cross between a lion and an eagle—a gryphon—only for a blue orb to suddenly appear at Rude's wrist and start falling. He caught it quickly, and after the battle, he gave it to Ed. It had turned out to be an All which had resulted from 'Mastering' another All Support Materia, so Ed could now build the new one up himself. The other was when both Rude and Ed managed to trip on loose rocks (while Ed knew he was very occasionally so careless, he doubted Turks would ever be), only to find one blue orb in the mixture. It turned out to be an Elemental Support Materia, so since Rude already had one, Ed kept it.

Finally, late in the evening as sunset was passing into night, they climbed up the long stair to the town of Cosmo Canyon. There was a guard at the gate who stepped in their path and said, "We're full-up, so you can't come in."

Ed's brow raised and he asked, "Do you know anything about 'alchemy'?"

For a moment, the man paused, then said, "No, sorry, I can't help you."

"Then please get an Elder who might know what I'm talking about," the teen replied, moving over to the side, clapping his hands, and putting them down on the canyon wall next to the gate. Some of the wall obediently detached in a green-white flash of light to form two chairs he and Rude could sit in, and when Ed sat in one and smirked at the gaping man at the gate, the vacationing Turk sat in the other seat. "Go on—we'll wait here while you find someone."

The man didn't move for a minute, but as he was turning to leave, two large, orange cats with burning tail tips bounded past him and skidded to a halt at Ed's feet, their eyes riveted on him.

"A Sentinel!" they both breathed, one in a female voice and one in a male one.

Blinking, the blond asked, "You know about the race that title comes from?"

"We're Guardians," the male answered without hesitation. "You've come here to find out more about the Planet, haven't you? Grandfather will want to speak with you."

"And you should see his observatory! You'll understand more about it than we will—but did you really use the Lifestream energy without even an array?" the female asked.

Ed's lips quirked as he was still trying to wrap his brain around talking mountain lions, but he said, "I used an array, I just imprinted it on the energy in my body instead of taking the time to draw it out." Well, he knew human-animal chimeras could talk, so why not a natural, animal-shaped creature from another world?

"Wait, if he's using energy the Lifestream doesn't have to give, he's an enemy!" the man at the gate glared at the two cats. "Get away from him, Nanaki, Deneh!"

"No," the male cat answered.

"He put it back," the female added, dismissing the man's argument.

"...What?" the man asked in confusion. No one saw an old man come up behind him, sitting on a floating, green orb roughly the size of a beach ball.

"Just what she said—he put it back. It was temporary use," the male cat said.

When the guard's eyes went to Ed, the teen informed him, "Alchemy is a cycle of energy with no beginning and no end. It converts energy into a new form and returns it to the cycle so it can be used again, and it actually uses _less_ energy than one shard of Materia forces into an effect. Well, I suppose the larger the task, the more energy would be used to accomplish it—both my own and the Planet's—but all that energy still gets returned to the Planet once the task is done. It operates on the principle that _energy_ can't be either created or destroyed, it can only be changed. Mako Reactors are an anomaly in that cycle, not the basic functionality of it."

"Alchemy is a lost art, and very, very dangerous," the old man behind the guard commented gravely, making the others turn to look at him.

"Grandfather!" the male cat said as the female simultaneously greeted, "Elder Bugenhagen!" They had rarely seen him look as grave as he did then.

"I know it can be, yes," the blond said evenly, meeting the old man's gaze. "I _know_ what kind of destruction it can cause after some of the things I've done or seen done, but I _also_ know what kind of good it can do, the lives it can save. Maybe you don't want to hear this, but alchemy is a tool, just like a knife, Materia, or a wrench, and by itself does absolutely nothing—don't make it at fault for the actions of the one holding the tool."

"How can you be so sure it _is only_ a tool?" Bugenhagen asked curiously.

"Because the arrays which operate alchemy also operate the Materia you use all the time," Edward replied dryly.

After a pause, the old man laughed, "Oh ho ho! Yes, that is a very good answer, young man. Now, what drew Nanaki and Deneh to you?"

Entirely amused, Ed pointed down at the arm of the chair he sat on and informed the man, "Apparently, they sensed me use alchemy to do this, then return the energy to the Planet, so came running to meet what's probably the first Sentinel they've ever encountered."

"Oh ho ho!" the old man laughed again. "Yes, that is true. Very well, you and your companion may enter, and stay as long as you like. I would like you to join me in my observatory once you've had a chance to look around town, as I suspect there will be some things here you will want. Come see me tomorrow after the noon meal—it's far too late tonight for more than a good rest." He then floated away, still laughing.

The two cats' heads turned back to him, one pair brown-gold and one pair green-gold, as the female, with green-gold eyes, said, "Come, we'll show you to the inn. What are your names?"

Ed and Rude rose as he said, "I'm Edward, or Ed for short, and that's Rude. He doesn't like to talk much, but when he does, it's pretty valuable, so you should pay attention. Anyway, what about you two? Which of you is which?" He turned back to the two stone chairs, clapped his hands again, and put them down one on each chair, causing them to flash back into the canyon wall beside them.

"Wow..." the male cat breathed in awe. "I'm Nanaki," he added, still staring at where the chairs had been and the wall they'd faded into. "She's Deneh. As far as we know, we're the last two of our kind."

"The last two Guardians?" the boy asked curiously, facing them.

"Yes," Deneh agreed, padding over to the canyon wall he'd manipulated and running her paw over the ridges there. "Sentinels sure are powerful..."

"Shouldn't Guardians also have a power, and a strong one, since a Guardian is also a protector and guide?" Ed asked, eying the two. Actually, by their current behavior, they reminded him of...kids? Maybe his age, or around there?

They both looked at him as Deneh said, "Maybe we would know if Cosmo Canyon hadn't been attacked by the Gi tribe when we were still young and all of our parents died. They never got to teach us everything we should have known."

"I see," the boy answered with a nod. "Let's head to the inn, then."

"This way," Nanaki agreed eagerly, turning and padding back into town past the guard. The still-shocked man moved aside as Deneh also walked back through the gate, and Ed and Rude followed them.

It seemed most of the village, built into the rock walls of the canyon, was asleep right then, but someone was sitting at the large bonfire on the flat-topped rock in the middle of town. The man had a look similar to Ling and Mei (1), especially when he turned to watch their progress around the rock and to a door within view of the fire, but he wore glasses. The door led to a tavern, and up the stairs to one side of the room was the inn, which cost a hundred gil per night. Nanaki and Deneh ran off as Ed paid for the room and he and Rude stepped into it, finding it a pleasant, comfortable temperature, despite the heat of the day and the cool of the night.

As they were settling in their respective beds, the teen asked, "The man by the fire, what do you know about him?" If he was anything like Ling and Mei, he had a reason for being there, because that was just the impression he got from those nationalities.

"He's Wutain. That's it," Rude answered, voice puzzled.

"People from Wutai don't normally wind up so far outside their homeland, do they?"

"No."

"Huh...Wonder if we'll find out later..."

"Maybe."

Shortly after, they were asleep.

CA

Morning came and Ed woke to something burrowed in his hair, which had come out of the braid he usually kept it in. Frankly, it reminded him of Winry's dog, Den, who had often climbed in their beds or stuck his nose in their hair if they found a place to take a nap outside, so it didn't worry him much. Of course, the only creatures he'd seen in town had been the two mountain lions, so it was probably one of them, which was in its own category of weird, but hey—they weren't hurting anyone. When he felt fully awake, he opened his eyes and turned his head, seeing—sure enough—one of the mountain lions. He just wasn't sure if it was Nanaki or Deneh, since he couldn't see the thing's eye color while its eyes were closed, but he could tell it was sitting on the ground with part of its chest, its neck, and its chin sitting on the bed to stick its nose in his hair.

"What are you doing?" he asked it dryly. The eyes snapped open and he saw Deneh's green-gold.

"The energy dancing around you is...hypnotic. I suppose I got caught in it," she answered as she lifted her head, sounding both confused and amused at once.

"I see. Could you show me to the shops once I've gotten dressed, then, Deneh?" he asked of her.

"Of course!" she agreed readily, padding outside and nudging the door shut.

A look around the room as he got ready for the day showed Rude already out and about, and there was no trace of Nanaki, either, so he was on his own for the morning. Not that he minded, since he was the one carrying around the money and the items for sale in Cosmo Canyon. Well, he was pretty sure Rude had his own stash, but he wasn't going to ask the man to buy him anything when he had his own funds. He had to debate selling or keeping the White Cape for a minute, but then snorted at his own stupidity—not only was it a gift, but he'd have to use it again to cross back through Gongaga. He didn't need it in Cosmo Canyon, though. Done with his preparations, he left the room and found Deneh waiting by the head of the stairs down to the tavern.

"Where are Rude and Nanaki?" he asked as she rose and led the way down and out of the tavern. Outside, the bright sun highlighted the activity of Cosmo Canyon during the day, which was very different from the quiet night.

"Nanaki is training—I train in the afternoons—and Rude went to look around town with nothing in mind to find," she answered. "Which shop first?"

"Weapons and armors—I'm always looking for more slots," he grinned.

"Won't you get overloaded with deficiencies?" she asked in concern.

"No," he snorted. "Materia reacts differently to me than to ordinary people, and the deficiencies don't affect me—actually, neither do the gains. I have to pay attention to my own capabilities and limits because the Materia can't help boost me so I can do more. It just means I can also have as many Materia slotted on me as I want without ill effect, so the more slots I have, the better."

"Why would you want so much Materia on you in the _first_ place?" a new voice asked as they reached a plateau on the stair they'd been climbing to the far side of the town. A look showed Ed the Wutain man he'd noticed the night before.

"I make a study of it and the arrays it functions on," the younger man answered easily, as it was also true. He'd hardly stop studying alchemy just because it had some different functions on Gaia!

"Fuhito, how was your study going?" Deneh asked curiously, head tipped to the side as she paused at the platform where the man stood.

"It's going better than expected, actually," the man answered with a faint smile. "I found an interesting connection yesterday, but I can't do any more with it until at least tomorrow." He paused, then looked at Ed and said, "Welcome to Cosmo Canyon. It isn't common for them to let people in, so you must have made quite an impression on the Guardians."

"Of course a Sentinel would have," Deneh snorted. "Edward, you may like talking with Fuhito later on, but Elder Bugenhagen already asked to see you this afternoon, so you should get the shopping you wanted to do done." She then headed up the next flight of stairs to the next platform, where there was a door leading inside.

With a wave at an amused-looking Fuhito, Ed followed her, and they stepped into the shop—and it _was_ a shop. In fact, it was the weapons and armors shop, so Ed moved over to the counter to examine what they had. Deneh sat down nearby to watch while the teen noted the weapons, bracers, and prices, and he quickly found that they had a bracer he liked and—to his surprise—a worth-while dagger. He had a sword and glove equivalent to those in the number of slots, especially since he didn't need doubles of linked slots, so he wasn't worried about replacing those.

"Mind if I get two Silver Armlets and a Dirk?" he asked, pulling out five thousands. The exchange was done quickly, and he'd gotten two hundreds back for the inn. He then exchanged the Silver ones for his old Carbon, which were worth a total of sixteen hundred, which he specifically asked, "Could you give me the six hundred in hundred gil bills? It makes the inn easier to pay." Since the shopkeeper didn't mind, he got back a thousand and the requested hundreds.

"Done?" Deneh asked as he tucked everything away—he'd sort it out later.

"I'll need the Materia shop, and is there a general store or a place I can sell some gems and metals?" he asked.

"The Materia shop usually takes care of that. This way," she answered, leading him up the stairs beside the weapons shop, to an upper room, and back outside onto another platform in the stone the town was built out of. Another set of stairs led up to yet another platform, and into another room which had a rope up, a sealed, metal door at the back of the room, and two more rooms to the side. She led him to the first room and inside, where he could see Materia laid out to look at, and said to him, "The next room is the kitchen—even though the inn will feed you, so will this kitchen. You'll have to wake up the shopkeeper, though, since he doesn't get a lot of business."

Ed snorted and walked into the room to brush his gloved fingers over the Materia sitting out. Honestly, when he found two purple Independent Materia, he was shocked, and decided to get one of each—who knew when those would come in handy? They were Health Plus (2) and Magic Plus (3), and cost eight thousand apiece. Looking behind the counter, he saw the man sleeping slumped against the counter, so reached down and gave his head a sharp rap with his knuckles. The man woke with a startled yelp and jumped up, disoriented at first as Deneh chuckled in the background, but then he saw the young man at the counter.

"Are you a customer?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure am. Do you want to sell me Materia first, or buy some gems and ore off me first?" Ed asked in amusement.

"What Materia do you want?" the man—who wasn't very old, Ed noted—asked, taking a box from the counter behind him.

"The Health and Magic Plus ones," he replied.

The man quickly pulled one of each from the box and offered them to Ed, who gave him sixteen thousands. As the boy tucked the two away, he asked, "So, what did you have to sell me?" Pulling out the gems the Jokers had pelted him with to be sold in Cosmo Canyon, Ed laid them out for the man, who looked impressed. "This is worth about thirteen thousand—hang on a minute while I do the exact calculations." He took out a paper and a book with older records in it, and quickly made a list, then totaled the amount. "It comes out to twelve thousand, nine hundred and eighty." Twelve of the thousands Ed had just used were returned to him, along with other bills—including another four hundreds.

Once he was done, he faced the mountain lion and asked, "So, now that I'm done with the shops, was there anything you wanted me to see before lunch?"

"Sure! I'll show you some of my favorite places," she agreed eagerly—and he quickly found himself being led around the cliffs surrounding the town. Admittedly, some of the sights were—nice, if he could bring himself to see them for their aesthetic beauty, rather than their use as materials, but the path was getting harder and harder to walk for him, while it didn't bother her at all. And it was made harder by general exhaustion.

Finally, on one of the paths, he slipped and nearly fell down the vertical cliff with a curse, so stopped where he was after slipping, panting hard and eyes closed.

"Would it be easier for you if I carried you on my back?" Deneh's voice asked from right above his head—she'd come back to see if he was okay.

Opening his eyes to look up at her, he sighed and admitted, "Either I change the whole cliff face, or you'll have to carry me, otherwise I won't be able to go any higher up from here." He paused, then asked, "But are you sure you'll be able to carry my weight as well as your own? I'm heavier than I look."

She gave a small chuckle and hopped down to a pair of spiked shapes below and beside him, less than half a foot away from where he was perched. "I'll be fine, since it's not far now. You made it much further on your own than anyone else who ever tried following Nanaki or I up here. Get on."

Taking a small breath, Ed detached himself from the rocks he'd caught to halt his fall and swung a leg over her back, easing himself over to lay across it and wrap his arms around her neck. "Am I holding too tight in front?" he asked.

"Nope. Tuck your legs up against my sides and hold on tight," Deneh ordered.

Ed obeyed—and a moment later, she was bounding up the steep cliffs with him gripping her tightly so he didn't slip. Actually, he'd ridden a horse a few times before, but the power of a horse was nothing compared to the flexing of hard muscle he could feel under his arms, chest, thighs—it was incredible how much stronger a mountain lion, a predator, was compared to the horses he'd ridden before. She had a smoother method of movement, but could bend and twist far more easily, so it was also easier to become unbalanced, and he had zero control over her speed or path, so the ride was nerve-racking and exhilarating at the same time.

Finally, what felt like hours later but was really less than ten minutes, she came to a halt and said, "You can get off now. We're here."

Without looking at the scenery, the boy forced his muscles to unlock and fell off her back onto his side. She chuckled as he took a moment to just lay there and re-orient himself, but then he rose carefully and took a look around.

They were on the top of a five-foot-wide, flat-topped pinnacle which was obviously the highest point in Cosmo Canyon. From there, he could see the jungles and ocean in the south, the mountains west and north, with grasslands to the southwest, and expanses of ocean, islands, and peninsulas to the east. The skies were clear, the views breathtaking for the distance alone, and the contrast of color drawing the eye from above, like a beacon.

For the first time in his life, Edward Elric was stunned speechless by the sheer, raw beauty of the view. For the first time as far back as he could remember, he didn't see materials or how he could use what he was seeing, or any calculations of distance or anything else. His mind was still and silent, calm in a way he'd never felt it before.

All he saw was the true, natural beauty of Gaia.

Before he realized what was happening, tears were running down his cheeks, and Deneh asked him in alarm, "Are you okay, Ed?"

Slowly, he nodded, and in a trembling voice, he told her, "...Yes, I'm fine. For the first time...I can see what Rude meant...The beauty of the world around me, an appreciation for the fact that I'm alive to see it. Thank you...so much...Deneh."

She stared at him in surprise for a minute, then shuffled over to push her head under his hand, purring as he scratched behind her ears absently.

Together, both of them stood there for some time, staring out at the view as Ed got the tears out of his system and they both appreciated the fact that they were alive.

 **Notes:**

(1) In the English translation, she was called 'May Chang', but the actual spelling is 'Mei' in both Japanese and Chinese, and she's from that world's version of China, so that's how I'm spelling her name.

(2) Health Plus: in the FFVII game, this would be called HP Plus and raise your HP, but let's face it—in real life, we don't have HP, so I replaced it with 'health' and tied it to stamina rather than the number of health points game characters are denoted.

(3) Magic Plus: in the FFVII game, this would be called MP Plus and raise your MP. Like with Health Plus, real life doesn't have MP, so this is effectively a merging of the MP Plus and Magic Plus (which raises the 'magic' stat) Materia existing in the FFVII game, and raises intellect (or, more accurately, mental agility) to match with Health Plus raising stamina.


	11. 11-First Steps to Wisdom

First Steps to Wisdom

By the time Deneh gave Ed a ride back down to the main level of the town, lunch had nearly ended and Nanaki and Rude were waiting worriedly. Though Ed seemed to be in a daze as he got off Deneh's back, he gave a wave to Rude as he followed the female cat into the main tower, the one with the shops and the kitchen. Rude and Nanaki followed quietly, waiting while Ed ate, but before they could head to Bugenhagen's place, Rude rested a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Okay, Ed?" he asked quietly.

Slowly, the blond looked up at him, gaze still seeing something far away as he said softly, "I finally understand what you meant, thanks to Deneh. For the first time in a long time, I could enjoy the view just for itself, and I finally know what I've been missing, what I lost."

Rude blinked and turned to look at Deneh questioningly, making her say, "I took him up to 'the Pinnacle', the highest point in Cosmo Canyon. From there, you can see the ocean south and west, and the other mountain ranges east and north, especially on a completely clear day like today."

The man considered what she was saying, then gave a slow nod and said, "Thank you."

She gave a nod, then she and Nanaki led them to the rope to guide them higher up. Of course, as mountain lions, they simply jumped the distance, rather than climbing the rope put there for humans, but neither Ed nor Rude had an issue climbing that rope or the next as they worked their way up to Bugenhagen's home, following the two cats.

When they got up to the old man's home, he smiled and greeted them with, "Oh ho ho, you're here! Did you enjoy the trip up the Pinnacle, Sentinel?"

Ed's lips quirked and he asked, "Does the whole town know Deneh took me up there to see the view?"

"Pretty much. Part of the path is in view of it, after all," the man chuckled. "Normally, only these two kids can get up there, but you did very well on your own, and Deneh didn't have far to finish the trip, so...Did you enjoy it? Was it worth the effort?"

"Yes and yes," the teen answered simply, golden gaze still flashing back to what he'd seen. "Kids?" he asked in amusement as he tipped his head towards the mountain lions. Both waved their tails to show their amusement.

"They're about forty-one years old in human years, but only approaching fourteen in the years of their race. As thirteen-year-olds, yes, they're kids," Bugenhagen explained. "Though, they often don't act like it, given their number of years living."

"Makes sense—so it's about three of our years for every one of theirs?" Ed asked.

"Yes. And their average lifespan will be much longer than ours, in the multiple hundreds of years," the old man added. "Now, on to the reason for your visit. If you would be fine coming up to the observatory first, I'll show you the situation as I've assessed it, and you'll be able to explain what brought you here after that. Up we go, oh ho ho!" He moved over to the door leading up to his observatory, and Ed and Rude stepped in after him while the cats stayed below.

The platform rose, and they found themselves surrounded by a holographic projection of the solar system they were in and a segment of space around it. Admittedly, the degree of technology they had on Gaia often exceeded what Ed knew to be possible on his own world, and this new bit was no exception. He was rather awed by what he was seeing as well, since it truly gave him a new perspective and a guarantee that he wasn't on his own world anymore, not if their solar system looked the way the projection showed. He'd briefly entertained the possibility of this world being the future of his own, but the solar system couldn't have changed so much if that was the case, even if the technology and existence of Materia had been new developments. Then again, by the physical size of the world, he'd already been sure it was a different world, and it still left him plenty of questions about how he'd gotten there and what was going on.

When the projection settled into a regular pattern of movement for all the objects it was apparently tracking, the system seemed to calm and a sound like screaming reached them. Bugenhagen tipped his head to the side as Rude jumped and looked for the source—but Ed's eyes focused on the Planet's image, his lips pursed.

"You understand what the screaming is, don't you, Edward?" Bugenhagen asked in his serious tone.

"The Planet. It's because of the Mako Reactors," the boy answered simply, and Rude turned to look at him in concern. "I suspected as much as soon as I realized the whole of the land was dead around them, and that they were extremely inefficient, to the point where they were wasting probably about a quarter of what they pull up. Maybe they even waste more than that, I haven't had a chance to study the output versus the use to know."

"'Dead' to you means what?" the old man asked curiously.

"Alchemy uses ambient energy of life—or more accurately, of death. At least, one version of it does. The other version, which is called alkahestry, uses pure Lifestream energy. Both variants don't work for me around the Reactors, but the Materia shards still do, and I can still modify their effects as long as I'm using it through the shard. Oddly enough, the Materia arrays are based on alchemy but use alkahestry energy, though that might have something to do with the existence of the Summons," Ed explained. "Basically, the areas around the Reactors are so dead 'death' doesn't even exist there anymore, let alone the Lifestream."

Silence fell for a time, other than the sound of the Planet's screaming, as both Rude and the old man contemplated his words. Finally, Bugenhagen said, "The Lifestream flows around the world, and everything stems from it, and returns to it. In the natural course of life, the Lifestream would be maintained by that very cycle, but the Reactors are breaking it. They are taking and not giving back, draining away a finite source of energy. So much has already been taken that it is unlikely the Planet will live for much longer, but the longer it goes on, the shorter the world's lifespan will be. It is already on a course of destruction. There is nothing to be done so late."

With a snort, Ed said, "Now, if I believed _that_ , I'd have given up and died when I was ten, or even just a few weeks ago. _We're still alive_ , old man. As long as we're still alive, there's _always_ a solution to find, a way to set things to rights—it just takes the right information and the right person, the right _people_ , assessing it to find a workable solution."

"There is no way to return the stolen energy to the Planet," the old man replied.

Crossing his arms, the blond teen replied, "Not one you know. That doesn't mean there isn't one out there, waiting to be found. And sometimes, the easiest solution is also the simplest one, which is why adult minds working on it often won't see it. No, I'm sure there's a way to restore its energy or at least set it to a maintenance mode, because the Planet _did_ have energy to spare at one time, otherwise Materia wouldn't exist. The one thing I'm sure of is that it wouldn't have created objects _separate from itself_ using its own energy unless it could afford to give up that energy."

"Materia are part of the Lifestream as well," Bugenhagen said.

"No, they aren't. If they were, the Reactors wouldn't _create_ them, they would _drain_ them," the boy answered coldly. "They originated from the Lifestream, yes, but they're severed shards with their own identities, souls, and energy sources which aren't tied in to the Lifestream. If they were, they wouldn't work in the dead zones around the Reactors because either the Lifestream or the Reactor would be able to access and pull that energy. Do you want to know about Summons, how _they_ form? Shiva told me a Summon is created when the Lifestream creates an independent soul and sends it to find a shard of Materia to bond to. The shard it finds determines its properties, and therefore, its name and form as we see them when we Summon them. Shiva, for example, was one of those souls who found her way to a shard of Ice Materia, thereby creating her form as Shiva, the Ice Summon. _Shiva_ is completely separate from the Lifestream and feels no pull from either it or the Reactors. She described Materia, and Summons in particular, as the Lifestream's 'children', not as _itself_."

"...You are very insistent on the technicalities of what is or is not connected," the old man said, then laughed. "Oh ho ho, what a debate!"

"It's not a debate, it's facts based on evidence. Those same facts—the ones you want to gloss over—could well be the key to solving the problem," Ed commented.

"How does the state of Materia matter?" the elder asked curiously.

"Right now, there's no clear answer for that, except to say that there's a reason, and a process, involved in the Planet naturally severing parts of itself. Studying that process could also tell us how to reverse it. If we can reverse it, we can apply the same concept to the Mako Reactors. The problem is that we're currently working from a finished product, and reverse-engineering anything makes it somewhat imprecise until we can fine-tune it, but it's still a place to start—a place which only exists if people acknowledge and accept that Materia are _severed_ from the Lifestream."

"Oh ho ho, I see! Yes, perhaps the arrival of a Sentinel may well be our saving grace. In our lore, a Sentinel is both a scholar and a warrior, and for such a fine example of one to turn up here...Yes, perhaps there is a chance. Oh ho ho!" the old man laughed again, sounding very pleased.

"Is there more you can tell me about the Lifestream, or about why Materia have a very strange effect on me?" Ed asked suddenly. When Bugenhagen looked over at him, he elaborated, "Touching them with my bare skin is debilitating because they force me to access the knowledge stored in them—the arrays and such. With the slots, I can control the effect, and with gloves all I get is the name, but my bare skin, I don't have any control over the influx of information. The result is especially bad with Magic and Summon Materia, but it happens with all of them."

"Ah..." the elderly man murmured, then paused to think about what it might mean. "Tell me, how—much of your alchemy—remains within normal limits? I suspect by your lack of visible, drawn array, that you are operating _outside_ its normal limits, yes?"

For a minute, the blond paused, then glanced at Rude. He then sighed and said, "I know I tried for years to learn to use alchemy without an array, but until I tried to do something really stupid, I wasn't able to. After trying to do that really stupid thing, I found I was able to use alchemy without a drawn array. Intelligence has nothing to do with it, nor memory, nor focus, because I always had all of those in spades. The difference was in what happened when I tried to do the impossible."

"And what happened then?"

"...I saw the Alchemist's Gate."

"Oh ho ho, yes! I suspected you had seen the fabled Gate! Yes, you have a great many pathways open now which humans were never meant to have open. Is your only purpose knowledge, or is there some goal you have in mind by requesting information about the effect Materia has on you?"

"I need to find a way to make bare skin contact less debilitating or not debilitating at all."

"The only way to achieve that is to seek out those pathways and learn to manipulate them, to train them, to make them open and close as you need them to, or to restrict the flow through them. It is much the same as exercising your muscles, and you clearly know how to do that—but the difference is that no one can help you find those pathways, or to train them. This is a task you must undertake entirely on your own, Sentinel."

"I half expected that as soon as a Materia expert I spoke with said it was likely my existing knowledge of alchemy was the cause of the problem, because it meant those pathways in me were already open. Your explanation added to that, and didn't contradict it, so he was on the right track—then again, he could never have known about the Gate or what that would mean. I didn't tell him that part."

"Oh ho ho, then we have a great deal to learn about you, and you have a great deal to learn here. Stay as long as you like, and learn all you can. Now, I believe we have done enough for today," Bugenhagen said, lowering the observatory floor so the projection shut off and Ed and Rude could step out into the main room again.

Nanaki was the only one sitting there when they stepped into the room, and he asked immediately, "How did it go, Grandfather?"

"Oh ho ho, it was fine! Wonderful, in fact!" the old man told the cat he'd apparently adopted. "Run along now, all of you!"

As they all headed back outside, Rude rested a hand on Ed's shoulder, making the smaller man turn back to him. They were standing on the platform outside the room where the rope to the Materia shop and kitchen were, and Nanaki had already gone inside. With no one nearby, Rude's low voice wouldn't likely be heard, and Ed was sure he had something to say, otherwise he wouldn't have stopped him.

"The 'Gate'...is it dangerous?" the man asked.

With a shrug, the younger of them answered, "I guess that depends. It's capable of killing anyone who accesses it, but it's also a huge source of energy and knowledge. The question is the price you're willing to pay for said knowledge. I did it unwittingly, not knowing what I was getting into...It was how I lost my leg and my brother. Did it give me back something worth what I lost? I don't actually know, because the Gate quantifies the things which we, as humans, can't quantify—what would have happened in my life had I not been so stupid, what would my brother have done in his, how 'valuable' I am in the scheme of things compared to him...I can't answer any of those questions. I just know...if I'd never opened the Gate, I probably wouldn't be standing here now, and everyone I know and love would be dead, including myself, because there'd have been no one to stop the madman back home who tried to kill everyone."

The hand still on his shoulder squeezed comfortingly. "It's not your burden now."

"It will always be my burden, it has no choice." Hanging his head, Ed let his bangs fall over his eyes.

A hand took his chin and tipped his face up so he had to meet Rude's eyes—and he noticed the man had taken his shades off. "Your brother is gone. You cannot change that. Accept it. Your friends and family are safe. Accept that too. You need do nothing to change that. Move on. They are not your burdens. Live your life _for yourself_."

At first, Edward's jaw fell open, as that was the most he had ever heard Rude say at once, but then the words and their meaning penetrated his mind and he stiffened for a moment, then bolted. He knew what his own body could handle, so was down from the platforms in less than a minute by jumping, and was on the path up to the Pinnacle less than two minutes later. The only thing on his mind was getting away from what had been shoved in his face—his inability to accept things, especially things he didn't like or want to face. And the fact that sooner or later, he had to start accepting things as they were, as realities around him, not things to challenge. Maybe not everything should be given up on, the pending fate just accepted, like trying to keep the world from running out of energy, but there were other things which needed to be accepted.

He stopped on the side of the Pinnacle path facing away from Cosmo Canyon's town, sitting on a small ledge there and settling in to think for awhile. Somehow, he felt that if he hadn't just been crying that morning, he'd be crying now, all because of how close to home those words had hit.

Everything had started because he hadn't been able to accept his mother's death. The fame and grandeur of bringing the dead back to life—succeeding where many others had failed—meant nothing to him, it never had. If he could have just had his mother back, he'd have been happy to live his life without anyone else even knowing he'd done it. Ultimately, based on the functionality rules of raising the dead on the Planet, he could never have brought her back, anyway, not when she'd been dead for years. His Teacher had tried to make him and Al both understand the fact that death was permanent, but in the end, it hadn't worked. He hadn't been able to accept losing his mother.

Instead, not only had he failed to bring her back, he'd lost his brother, as well. And all he'd been able to recover of his brother was his soul. Well, until the very end, in the confrontation with Father...but he couldn't remember how that had turned out. Since he couldn't remember, maybe he hadn't been able to save Al after all...and as much as he hated to admit it, there was a good chance he'd never know, and that he'd never be able to go back. The fact was, the more he saw of Gaia, the more sure he was he'd never see Al again...or anyone else from Amestris or Xing. No matter how aware of that fact he was, no matter how hard it was to get used to describing them as 'dead' to others, part of him still rebelled against it, still wanted to find them or a way home, even though his only paths were closed to him. He couldn't make the same stupid mistakes again.

Was he ready to accept the fact that he had to live here now? Or was he still going to cling to the fact that...his brother was...? Well, he didn't know _what_ his brother was anymore.

More, could he accept the fact that with Father defeated, he wasn't actually needed for anything else in Amestris? Without some huge enemy to fight or a quest to pursue, admittedly, he'd be bored in no time, but to lose all the people he cared about...Or more accurately—weren't they the ones who had lost him?

With a deep sigh, Ed leaned his head back against the rock wall and absently clapped his hands together, a vague rock transmutation circle on his mind. When he rested one hand on the wall above him, it created a small ledge to shield his eyes from the direct sun, the gentle green-white light crackling around the spot as—

 _Wait, green?_

Ed suddenly sat up straight as he twisted to stare at the ledge, eyes wide.

Looking down at his hands for a moment, he let his mind flash back to every previous transmutation he'd performed in Amestris and on Gaia. There were certain colors which had appeared in Amestris, the predominant one being blue-white for any basic transmutation. There had been red for transmutations using the Philosopher's Stone, and a deep, purple-black for attempts at human transmutation which required or activated the Gate. He had seen only two exceptions to those—Mustang's fire creating an orange light on its way to its target and Armstrong's alchemy based on his family's traditions being yellow.

However, _every_ transmutation he'd performed on the Planet had been _green_ now that he looked back on it. Why hadn't he noticed before? Had he just been too absorbed in learning about a new world?

"What the Hell?" he asked himself in confusion, looking up at the ledge again.

If Gaia had also been a land using alchemy at one time, why was the basic color of a transmutation different? Or...did that have something to do with the Materia? The colors and the circle types they had were all very planned, and because this was another world, it was possible the change in color was him making a mountain out of a molehill.

Slowly, he settled back against the rock under the ledge, letting it do its job of shielding his eyes from the sun. Closing his eyes, he contemplated the color change some more, comparing it to the Materia colors and realizing he had only really used transmutations falling loosely under the 'Magic' category. On Gaia, that associated color was green, not blue. He hadn't done anything to count as a Support, a Command—though, oddly enough, most of Armstrong's skills quite resembled Command effects on Gaia—a Summon (absolutely not!), or an Independent. Well, no alchemist could have done anything to resemble a Summon, regardless, as alchemy just couldn't do that, and the closest approximation they had was attaching a soul to a suit of armor.

Then again, most of the abilities of the Supports and the Independents were frankly impossible to create by human hands, though some of the Commands could be functional forms of alchemy. Only the Lifestream's intervention was creating the effects of Support and Independent Materia, and only the Philosopher's Stone's effects could be considered comparable to those. Support effects with real, active-use alchemy were worked right in to the basic array and part of the basic attack, not a separate aspect to be added or taken away at will.

However, it was also possible that the color of a transmutation he did involving any of the types of Materia would generate the color of the Materia type he'd invoked. It led him to wonder if Materia could be artificially created, deliberately by human hands, to create certain effects, or if existing Materia could be converted into new forms...

CA

That night, it was pretty late when he returned to the inn. Rude had waited up for him, and he knew the older man was worried about him, but he didn't really know what to say to him, either.

It was Rude who solved the problem by saying, "I hurt you. Sorry."

At first, all Ed could do was stare in surprise, then shake his head. "No, I hurt myself. You've brought up difficult topics before, but...That one was the root of everything that went wrong. I wasn't really ready to have it thrown in my face...At the same time, if you didn't do it, I'd never be able to deal with it. So...thanks."

The man just reached over to grip his shoulder for a moment before they slept.


	12. 12-Summons

Summons

The next morning, the teen woke to Rude resting a hand on his shoulder, so sleepily asked, "What?"

"Rest. I'll bring food," the man said quietly, then rose.

"Why?" the boy asked in mild confusion, though he also wondered why he felt so gawd-awful tired.

"You didn't sleep well," Rude replied, leaving the room.

It occurred to the blond that the dark skinned man was paying more attention to him than almost anyone else he knew, and had to wonder why. Well, the question was one he'd have to ask, and he didn't think he'd get an answer on that—not right now, anyway. Or, he grudgingly admitted to himself, he wasn't ready to hear the answer.

As such, he shifted to sit with his back leaning against the headboard of the bed, relaxing against a pillow as he waited for Rude to come back. In all honesty, he'd have gotten up even though Rude had said to rest, but for some reason, his body wasn't cooperating with him. It was as though all the strength had gone out of his limbs, like he'd exercised hard for far too long, which was unusual for him, even after nightmares. The strange thing was—he couldn't remember having had a nightmare, let alone a number of them. It didn't change how much like crap he felt or the laxity of his muscles.

Rude soon came back with food, and the two ate together quietly before the man asked, "Sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I actually can't remember any nightmares, not even a receding chill or horror when I woke, so I'm a bit at a loss. Yesterday was still a—really rough day. Maybe it just caught up to me overnight."

"...Maybe."

The concession sounded disbelieving, which made Ed sigh. Reaching up, he tugged Rude's shades off and met his concerned, brown gaze with calm, even gold, saying, "I honestly don't remember having nightmares, Rude. Before last night, if I'd had any, I remembered them, but I just don't remember having any. By all rights, I probably should have, but _I can't remember them_ , even if I did."

He let the man take his shades back as the man's gaze grew more concerned and he said, "You should see a doctor."

"If this doesn't ease up or if it happens again, I will. Doctors usually can't do something about a one-shot which has gone away, but in either of the other two conditions, they'll have something to track," the boy compromised—he _hated_ doctors, especially _needles_! He didn't want to put himself 'in harm's way' for no good reason.

After a pause, Rude conceded the point and let it go. The man took their trays back to the tavern, then went out to look around Cosmo Canyon while Edward stayed in bed and rested. As much as the teen wanted to go outside and explore more, talk with people, if he couldn't do it on his own power, he wasn't going to do it, so settled for going back to things like his notes, re-reading and adding to them with the new knowledge he'd gotten in Cosmo Canyon. With that, he took the time to examine the new Materia he'd gotten and how he would rearrange his slotted Materia.

Revive and Final Attack were staying slotted together in one of his bracers, and he put Enemy Skill in the same bracer, knowing he still had to build it up. At that point, he had to start really assessing everything else he'd found on the path from Costa del Sol to Cosmo Canyon, which he hadn't really done yet. Sure, he knew each one's uses, but hadn't assessed their _usefulness to him_ and the way he did things.

Of the ones he'd kept, Ultima and W Summon were impressive, but he didn't actually see the value of using W Summon when that would be a huge drain on his energy—without the gains the slotted Materia gave, he also had concerns about being _capable_ of handling a double summon. Summons had to channel his energy, and doing two at once gave him chills just thinking about. Ultima was like a massive, deadly, vaporizing explosion. He thought back to the way Mustang had occasionally talked about the Ishbal War and how people like him had been forced to commit mass slaughter, even of innocent women and children. Then, there was the way Kimblee had talked about the same war, relishing in the explosions and the smell of burning flesh, and realized Ultima was too destructive of a force, one Ed could never bring himself to use, let alone against people. As such, even if he kept it, that one would become a gift to someone who he felt wouldn't misuse it. Did he know anyone like that? They joined his extra Added Effect and Mirage for the 'gift' purpose.

At about that point, he felt _all three_ of his Summons, Shiva, Titan, and Ramuh, all sending him a questioning feeling from where they sat in his lap—and realized the sense was reaching him because all three were doing it, even with the thin blanket in the way of direct skin contact. Shifting around so they could sit leaning against his bare thigh below his boxers, he grimaced as he was first dragged into all three of their arrays at once.

And _bloody Hell_ did that _hurt_!

He'd thought one Materia was debilitating, but three was insane. None of them tried to talk with him until he was able to sort the three sets of arrays out from one another and draw himself back a bit from said forced Comprehension. It was hard work, because he'd effectively made himself mentally cross-eyed by trying to bring himself into contact with three at once. They watched him work at separating the information influx into its three separate sources, which imposed enough control on the intrusion for him to vaguely acknowledge the Summons, who remained quiet until Ed's head had mostly stopped hurting. The Summon arrays weren't as complex as some of the others in the Magic category, but the amount of knowledge contained in any one Summon array was greater than it would have been for most Magic Materia.

Finally, he could turn his mind to them and ask with his mind, _:What do you three want?:_

 _:What are you doing, Sentinel?:_ Shiva asked in reply.

 _:Sorting and assessing new Materia—Titan and Ramuh would be among them,:_ he explained a little tiredly.

 _:That was not the way to go about assessing us,:_ Titan informed him dryly. His voice was much like a middle-aged man's. _:Though I have to commend you on retaining your sanity in the attempt.:_

 _:Smart ass. Good morning, by the way, Titan. Have a good sleep?:_ Ed asked the Summon who had been sleeping when he'd found him.

 _:Water does not do me well, particularly not when I happen to be immersed in it for a lengthy period of time. I woke only because you found me and removed me from the water,:_ the Summon explained, and Shiva chuckled.

 _:It is true—most Summons actually tend to fall into sleep when immersed in water for any length of time,:_ the woman Summon admitted.

 _:Consider it a type of suffocating lullaby,:_ Ramuh added in his aged voice.

 _:I see. That doesn't sound too pleasant..:_ Ed admitted.

 _:No, it is not,:_ Titan agreed. _:Now, sorting Materia?:_

 _:For what the effects of each are and which ones I'll actively use in my slots,:_ the blond boy explained. _:I did this with Shiva once before, as it was before I found you two. If I can pull myself out of this focused concentration contact with you put me in, I'll be able to get some of your input while sorting through them.:_

 _:Slot us, then widen the link between yourself and us through the slots so you will be able to circumvent the forced contact of the bare Materia,:_ Ramuh promptly stated.

Blinking, then blinking again, Ed asked Shiva, _:Does that work?:_

 _:I do not know,:_ she replied. _:I am a new soul added to the ranks of the Summons after one of the previous Shiva souls returned fully to the Lifestream. An older soul—like Ramuh's—would know that better.:_

 _:And I do,:_ Ramuh agreed.

For a minute, the teen paused, then blinked again and asked, _:Wait, Materia shards actually break down and return to the Lifestream?:_

 _:They do,:_ all three answered.

 _:How? Why?:_

 _:No reason in particular, other than the fact that nothing lasts forever, even an object as durable as Materia,:_ Ramuh informed him. _:As to how, well, that I am uncertain of. Only Materia considered 'Mastered' ever do so—a Materia which has never reached such a state cannot return to the Lifestream. Given the requirements of Mastering a Materia, very few reach a state of deterioration such that they would break apart and release their energies back to the Lifestream.:_

 _:How soon after reaching a Mastered state do they deteriorate?:_ Ed asked curiously of the elder Summon. Both Titan and Shiva listened with equal interest, showing that they were both younger than Ramuh, even though Shiva was the youngest of them—comparatively.

 _:To begin? Immediately. To deteriorate to levels which would cause destruction—eons, Sentinel. Even with frequent use, Mastered Materia often take two or more millenia to deteriorate so far. You need not fear Mastering us, nor any other Materia—in fact, it is a tremendous boon to do so,:_ Ramuh explained easily.

For a minute, Ed thought about that, then realized if it took them so long to deteriorate, Ramuh was probably right. _:How many Summons are there at any one time?:_ he asked curiously, knowing they were quite rare and that he was actually quite lucky to have found three, and for Rude to be so lenient about letting him keep them.

 _:No more than three created by the Lifestream of any one type,:_ Titan answered that time. _:I am but one of the three possible Titans a person could have found, though a few have only one or two. However, we, like other, less sentient forms of Materia, will—reproduce—when we reach Mastered level ourselves, spawning another of our kind with its own soul. Of those, none of us could tell you, other than to say whether we ourselves have a 'child'. In our current forms, none of us do.:_

 _:Though Phoenix is the exception to the rule and there are often several of them created by the Lifestream (1),:_ Ramuh added.

That was so mind-boggling Ed decided to break his contact with them and move the three to slots on his bracers which currently had no other Materia in them. He then tested opening up to them so they could hear him ponder the other Materia he had gathered since he'd last actively set his slots in Junon. He decided to start with the Independent Materia he'd come across, then Support, and finally, Magic—the only two new Command ones he'd found had been W Summon and Deathblow, the latter which was Rude's now and the former he already knew he wouldn't use.

As such, he took the four purple Materia and began assessing them, finding that they were all quite useful, and he was honestly surprised he'd never come across the two he could buy in Cosmo Canyon anywhere before. Guard Plus effectively magically thickened his skin so he'd take less damage from attacks or impacts or things like that. Health Plus boosted his general stamina, which gave him greater staying power and higher natural healing. Speed Plus improved his physical dexterity while Magic Plus increased what he understood to be 'mental dexterity'—it didn't make the bearer smarter, it just made them more capable of forming connections between things they already knew and understood. If he was reading the arrays right, these were human transmutations which, if he did them with alchemy, would not only be highly dangerous, but permanent enhancements to the one they were done on. By 'highly dangerous', it meant that the arrays were so unstable there was at least a fifty percent chance of a rebound which would kill the target, the alchemist, or both. Yet Materia somehow could safely manage and maintain the effect...

Regardless, as things stood, he couldn't use all four at once, not right now, so he'd have to pick one, maybe two.

 _:The ones you would gain the most benefit from, Sentinel, are Guard and Health, as you have the other two in absurd quantities already,:_ Titan informed him dryly.

 _:What?:_ Ed blinked in surprise.

 _:Independent Materia cannot make you super-human,:_ Shiva explained. _:Your natural, physical body can only improve so much, even with their help. If you were less intelligent, Magic Plus would be a huge boost to you, but you are very capable and already have very high mental agility, as well as physical, so it would improve those qualities in you far less than if you used Guard or Health—things nearly everyone will gain the maximum benefit from, or close to. You train your muscle, but not your skin, and you may train a certain amount for stamina, but not to the degree a human is capable of training it, only to the degree you feel you need.:_

 _:So...:_ the teen mused, before clicking in to what she meant. _:My being a certified genius means I've already accessed nearly everything I'm capable of accessing mentally, and the Materia can't go past the physical and mental limits of my own body?:_

With the agreement of the Summons, Ed put the Speed and Magic Plus Materia shards in his bag, still to keep but not to actively use yet, while tentatively keeping the other two out.

He then went on to the Supports, which included the Added Effect he'd found back in Junon—of course, that was _after_ he'd just sorted his slotted Materia—the All Rude had given him, and the Elemental they'd found in Cosmo Canyon.

Added Effect would take the properties of whatever he paired it with to randomly cause said effect to inflict the enemy when he performed a normal attack. The arrays making it function were insane in number and complexity, but it could be very useful, and the arrays actually also showed a difference between it being slotted in a weapon and an armor. In the first case, it was as he'd noted the base effect to be, but in armor, it would defend him from said effect. By default, that meant its best use would be with something like Mirage, Time, Poison, or Transform, and he honestly felt Mirage and Time would be too touchy in both weapons and armors, and he had no true interest in Transform, so thought Poison would be his best option, and probably on a weapon. Especially if he joined the Turks and would have to fight humans.

The Summons agreed, so he chose to slot Poison and Added Effect in his sword.

All was the next one he looked at, and while it was much less complex than Added Effect, it was complex enough—and quite useful, one he'd like to build up to gain more of. The Summons also agreed with the sentiment. It allowed the usually single-target Materia to hit multiple opponents with ease and no greater energy than the base requirement for the spell, something he naturally imprinted into his own alchemic arrays to make them functional and useful in battle. The arrays allowing All to function included a means to deactivate the multi-target effect to revert it to a single target. As he was considering what to do with it, his gaze fell on his Restore Materia.

Yes, he could gain a huge benefit from having it paired with something to attack with, but ultimately, he was going to wind up working with other people, maybe even saving them. For practical purposes and the fact that he could gain and build more All Materia, his priority should be keeping himself and his companions or charges in one piece long enough to gain the benefits of the thing. The Summons were surprised by his decision, but had no complaints, so he slotted Restore and All on the paired slot on the bracer two of the Summons were currently slotted.

The last Support, Elemental, was just as insane as Added Effect, but meant for 'elemental' effects. It even had the same functionality as Added Effect in weapons versus armor, where it would turn the weapon into an elemental weapon or his armor into an elemental defense. While he'd come across some of that elemental variant the Planet used, he considered it negligible and not very useful in his style of combat to date, and he had no particular interest in specifying any 'superior' priority to any of the four basic elements, Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth. However, he had one other 'element', made distinct by its non-elemental nature—Gravity.

When he assessed the Gravity Materia for what it did, which he did next because he wanted to know if it would work with Elemental, he found it was exactly what the name implied. It created a localized gravity sink which applied direct pressure to whatever it had targeted, and the more powerful the Materia, the more pressure the gravity would exert—and therefore, the more damage it would cause. Based on an adult's body, of course. Its first level would cause roughly a quarter of a person's body damage, the second would cause half, and the third would cause seven eighths, or thereabouts. It could never kill by itself—which was actually a reason to appreciate it—but it could sure be useful on a weapon if he was in a bind. That decided, he linked Elemental and Gravity in his glove.

He was then left with three other Magic Materia which were 'new'—Mirage, Time, and Transform. His main interest in Transform was how its attached spells were 'Mini' and 'Toad', the former more than the latter, as he'd never been able to determine the array to shrink something down without removing materials from it. In a sense, that was more of an academic alchemic study tool than a Materia he'd care to use, so wasn't concerned with slotting it. Time and Mirage, on the other hand, were both very useful and things he would use, even benefit from. Time had the spells 'Haste', 'Slow', and 'Stop' on it, and Mirage had 'Multi' and 'Invis', the former affecting his and his allies' or his enemies' speed in battle, and the latter making him and his allies decidedly hard to hit short-term.

 _:Has speed been an issue for you in battle to date?:_ Ramuh asked as Ed pondered the two.

Since the answer to that was 'no', Ed set aside Time in his keepers with Transform and kept Mirage for active use, sticking it on his glove in an independent slot.

Since that took care of the new Materia, he reassessed the old ones he'd had on him and quickly determined which ones to slot. Heal was obvious, as was Manipulate if he planned on continuing to build Enemy Skill. The four elements—producing initial arguments like the one he'd had with Shiva with both Titan and Ramuh—were also going to stay, as would the Summons. Ice and Earth, he slotted in his sword, Ramuh in his glove, Heal and Manipulate in the bracer with Restore and All, and Shiva, Titan, Fire, and Lightning went in his new dagger. That left him one slot on the bracer with Revive, Final Attack, and Enemy Skill, so he'd have to choose between Guard Plus and Health Plus, eventually deciding Guard was the better option, so slotted it.

By the time he'd finished, he was exhausted, so laid down and took a nap in the middle of the day. It wasn't very long but much-needed, and he woke about two hours later feeling a great deal better. His muscles still hadn't recovered fully, but at least it wasn't murder trying to use the toilet, just mildly distressing. As such, when he told Rude about his improvement, the man made him stay in bed for the rest of the day, saying it was obviously doing him good. Nanaki and Deneh also showed up later that day, saying Bugenhagen and Fuhito had been arguing again so they preferred to not be at Bugenhagen's until the pair were done.

"What was the argument about?" Ed asked in concern.

Shaking his head, Nanaki answered, "How forcefully we should fight Shinra. He wants to launch attacks on them and destroy the Reactors, but Grandpa is a pacifist and doesn't believe fighting will help. He knows something needs to be done...but he also said a lot of people will die if they blow up the Reactors, and not just the people working in them—people who are relying on Mako energy, like hospitals trying to keep people alive, or innocent bystanders in the blast zone. Fuhito thinks they deserve to die anyway for letting Shinra kill the Planet."

"What do _you_ think?" Rude asked Nanaki, making the cat blink at him in surprise.

"I never thought about it before," the mountain lion admitted, and Deneh stared at him in confusion.

"Haven't you?" she asked. "You know the Planet will die, and soon, if things keep on the way they have been."

"Yes, but..." Nanaki paused to consider his answer, then finally said, "I can see both sides, and I can't understand why they don't compromise."

"Do you know how to bring them to a compromise?" Ed asked curiously. "What's the middle ground between the two extremes? Do you even know it, or how the situation could possibly be resolved without stripping people of power in the process?"

All three of the others stared at him, but Nanaki eventually admitted, "I don't know."

"And that's where 'compromise' always fails," the teen informed them dryly. "No one can see the middle ground, the solution, or the 'after'. They can only see the immediate present—to fight or not to fight. No one thinks of something as simple or practical as developing a new power source, quietly arranging for it to pick up the slack when the usual power source goes out, _then_ using a very contained explosion to destroy the main power source. It's a huge undertaking and requires a lot of planning on the sly. Could someone like Fuhito even make a plan like that, let alone stick to it? It's no short-term or flashy plan, and even if it succeeds, I doubt Shinra would be happy to be usurped."

"I share that doubt," Rude agreed tactfully, giving Ed an amused grin.

"Then...There's a way, but it will still wind up costing lives in the end," Deneh said quietly, sadly, and got nods back from the others.

 **Notes:**

(1) Yes, in the (original version) FFVII main game, there's a glitch which causes Phoenix have several copies at one time, or to literally be 'oddly prolific', as is the term used later in the story.

You can get Phoenix from two places in the game, Fort Condor after successfully defending it from Shinra the final time or by digging it up at Bone Village. If you leave behind the one at Fort Condor (don't pick it up), you can dig it up in Bone Village, then go back to Fort Condor to retrieve the one you left there, resulting in 2 baby Phoenixes. Every other Summon has only 1 copy in FFVII (unless you produce more through Mastering).

For the purposes of my story, that actually translates to a ratio which means there are AT LEAST 6 copies of Phoenix around the world, since ones like Shiva and Ifrit are stabilized to 3 (though some Summons—Knights of the Round, Bahamut ZERO, and a few others—will still only have 1 copy, and ones like Neo Bahamut may have 2).


	13. 13-Death

Death

In the morning, Ed woke refreshed, so got up and went to have something to eat before Rude had woken. He then debated what he wanted to do that day, as he actually had a lot of data to process, but wanted to give his mind time to work on it before trying to leap right into the next calculation. Especially with Rude trying to get him to take time away from all the calculating to just enjoy things for themselves. He now had a starting point for that, but the problem remained—if he _tried_ to enjoy something, he'd be doing the same kind of calculation Rude didn't want him to do. It had to be that he may calculate a place to go for the attempt, but once he'd chosen that, the rest had to come naturally or not at all.

Since he hadn't actually taken time to enjoy the bonfire in the middle of town, he went to sit at it for a bit while he thought. While sitting there, a man sat beside him, but with about two feet between them, and a glance showed Fuhito.

"Feeling better?" the man asked after a minute.

"Much. Come to think of it, it's been over a year since I've had a chance to truly relax with nothing else putting pressure on me," Ed answered in mild amusement.

"That's good to know," the Wutain said. He fell silent again for a minute as both stared into the fire, until he finally said, "The Cosmo Candle, in the 'Valley of the Fallen Star'. Did you know it never goes out?"

"If they keep adding fuel, it wouldn't."

"No...They don't add fuel to it, and it doesn't go out. Even one of the rare rainstorms had no effect on it."

"That's...impressive. Do they have any idea why, or its origin?"

"Well, they may know the origin, but it's not something they tend to share if they do. I worry about what would happen, or what it would mean, if the Candle _did_ go out, though." He seemed sincere, but for some reason, the man was setting him on edge.

"You have a theory on why it keeps burning?" Ed asked, curious in spite of himself.

Fuhito was quiet for a minute after the question, contemplating the flame. Finally, he said, "I believe this is a working of the Lifestream. This worries me greatly, because while the flame hasn't gone out yet, in the time between when we arrived here and now, the flame has dulled and shrank. The difference may not be huge, but it's large enough to be noticed. With that knowledge, the question becomes, what could be pulling so much energy from the Lifestream that it would dull an object which uses so little of its energy, the Cosmo Candle? If I'm correct in guessing that this is essentially the Planet's pulse point—then the Planet's pulse is fading."

Leaning back and bracing his hands behind himself, Ed stared up at the early morning sky. "The Mako Reactors. It's obvious. But...how long have you been here?"

"Two years."

"That's...quite a lot of energy reduction."

"It will only get worse. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes. Unless it can be stopped, unless it can be fixed, the problem will continue to worsen. That's just common sense."

Again, the other man paused before asking, "Would you consider joining AVALANCHE, then?"

"Who?" Ed asked blankly with a confused frown as he looked over at Fuhito.

"A group opposed to Shinra and the Reactors," the man said.

"Terrorists?"

"Some would say so."

"Is that what you _are_?"

"Our goal is to save the world. We'll _all_ die if we don't, so there's no other option. But the Shinra bigwigs are so stuck in their ways that any concerns people voice to them are summarily shunted aside and ignored. They have no sense of self-preservation. The whole of the population living under their control is willfully blind to the reality of the danger to the world, and simply don't care. When left with that, the only option is to act, and to act decisively. Will you help us?"

With a sigh, Edward said, "Fuhito, I frequent libraries and any source of data I can find. I've been around to a lot of the Shinra-controlled cities and found _nothing_ which would indicate what we've been talking about here. They control the media, and they use propaganda to their advantage to convince people nothing is wrong, so _of course_ most people won't know or see it—through no fault of their own. I agree action needs to be taken, but it needs to be well-planned and in the right order, and not just up to the attacks, but _after_ them as well."

" _You_ realized there was a problem."

"I only realized the problem because I have a specialized ability which relies on Lifestream energy to work, but which doesn't work around Reactors—that's completely circumstantial, and if I'd never tried using that ability around a Reactor, I'd be just as blind to the situation as everyone else. Just like how I wouldn't know something was wrong with the attack on Wutai if I hadn't previously had experience with propaganda."

A snort from Fuhito preceded the words, "Of course. Wutai's refusal to put in a Reactor is only half of the story, as their main goal is really just to take over Wutai so they can control the world and oppress it further. Of course, anything they can't control scares them because they know a lot of terrorists and anti-Shinra operatives are going there for refuge, and as long as they have no control over Wutai, they can't get rid of those threats to their power, either. _That's_ what the Wutain War is _really_ about."

Ed gave a long, impressed whistle. "Yup, more proof of media propaganda manipulation. And you really don't realize just how little the people in Shinra's territory know when they aren't even being told Shinra's attacking Wutai just to take over and to get to possible terrorists?" Of course, he was fairly certain that wasn't the real reason, either, and his research had pointed more to President Shinra being a control freak—and everything else was merely excuses. (1)

The words made Fuhito's jaw drop in shock, and he didn't say anything for a minute. Finally, he asked, "What do you mean, 'after'?"

"You're talking about tearing down a mega-power, not just a bunch of power plants. You're talking about tearing apart a society that has no clue how to live without Shinra because they've been indoctrinated into Shinra's society for decades. You're talking about cutting off power they've gotten used to having, forcing them to go back to ways of doing things they no longer know how to live by. Did it ever occur to you to plan for an alternate source of power or a functioning society that could be instituted immediately upon Shinra's collapse? Did it ever occur to you that just stopping the drain on the Planet isn't enough, that you _also_ have to find a way to _put that energy back_ if you're actually going to do all of this on the premise of 'saving the world'? If not, I think you'd better, otherwise all you'll do is leave behind devastation, loss, and hatred." With that, Ed rose and walked away from the Candle.

Wasn't that always the problem with revolutionaries, that they never had a plan for after so kept reverting to the same damned thing they'd been trying to change? In that regard, he was grateful to Mustang and even General Armstrong, both of whom had a plan of action for 'after' they took down Bradley.

Before he reached the bottom step of the platform the Candle sat on, Fuhito called, "Does that mean you won't join us? I could guarantee you safe passage in Wutai for your research, and I know there are a few kinds of Materia you'll find nowhere but there, some you'd also never be allowed to take out of Wutai."

Pausing, the sixteen-year-old turned back to the Wutain man and said, "As much as I appreciate that sentiment, Fuhito, AVALANCHE hasn't put enough real thought into what they're doing or trying to do, and what they _really_ hope to accomplish in so doing. I can't join a half-baked, cockeyed group of misfits whose only goal currently is 'blow stuff up'. That's not a goal—that's just wanton destruction. Give it some real thought with your leaders, formulate a real plan, and come talk with me again, assuming you can find me by the time you've sorted yourselves out properly." He then continued on his way, finally having decided what he wanted to do.

Since he wasn't called back after that announcement, he went to the side of Cosmo Canyon where he knew there was a ravine with a rapids-style river flowing. He'd seen it when he'd been following Deneh around, and the path to some of the ledges looking north was passable with his current skill. He could enjoy the pure physical challenge and find a nice view to admire (he hoped) on the way, so it would give him at least part of his training as well as potential to actually just have simple enjoyment. Some parts of the path he was on were actually in view of the village, which didn't bother him at all after realizing nearly every path to viewing ledges around the village were within view of it at some point.

Most of the trek up the path was just fine, certainly not as difficult as the path up to the Pinnacle, so he let himself enjoy the energy use and exercise.

As he was crossing one segment where he had to press himself to the wall while moving across uneven ledges, Ed brushed his arm up against a segment of rock—which somehow crumbled away under it. His next move brought his bare skin into contact with something he vaguely noted as smooth, but which he knew the identity of because he was dragged into the state of Comprehension. Apparently, he had just found the Summon Neo Bahamut. However, as wonderful as that discovery was, he also knew he was screwed when his connection to the Materia was force-broken—

By him falling backwards off the ledge he'd been on.

He had no time to react, still largely caught in the flood of information coming from the Materia shard—all he could do was go into free-fall, head-first.

For all he knew he was falling to what was probably his own death, he seemed to be caught in a bubble of the most bizarre influx of emotions he'd ever felt before.

Part of him felt detached and clinical, while another felt terror. A part of him was indeed seeing his life flashing before his eyes, but an equal part was aware of the vertigo sensation and pull of gravity as he fell, aware of people shouting in horror, aware of the sound of rushing water below him. But more than anything, what he felt in that moment was a sense of loss, even as he watched a dragon shape taking form above him, surging from the Materia shard in the wall.

Until the moment his head and neck hit the stone at the base of the ravine, at the water's edge.

 _Searing pain, a choking sensation, cracking bone, agony in all parts of his body, shooting through his nervous system—and finally, darkness._

He had no idea how long the darkness lasted, but he knew there was a sudden surge of green-tinted light flowing through him. His body was in agony again as the light passed and faded, and the darkness was replaced with confusing, swirling multitudes of color which weren't clearing. His head ached and his neck was sore as Hell.

Vaguely, he realized he was sopping wet and freezing cold, coughing through reflex as he lay on hard rock half in and half out of frosty water. His surroundings made no sense, wouldn't clear or stabilize.

Gently, something huge grasped him in its—what he thought were hands or claws of some sort—and he was lifted into the air. The sensation of vertigo came back stronger than ever and his body couldn't handle it, so heaved, emptying his stomach into the water below.

Shortly after, the thing carrying him stilled and he was gently lowered to solid, stable ground again, only to feel warm arms wrap around him and a familiar—sort-of familiar, anyway, given how messed up his head was right then—voice called to him, "Ed! Edward, answer me! Ed!"

It hurt his head. It made everything start spinning in confusion again.

And then he realized it—he'd just experienced what it felt like to die.

The realization was so painful and profound that gasping sobs tore from his throat as he clung to the form holding him tightly, his only comfort and anchor to reality right then being the other person's heartbeat. He was aware of nothing else.

CA

Rude and Nanaki had both been amongst the ones to see the blond teen suddenly fall over backwards as though he'd fainted, and everyone who had seen him fall ran for the cliff edge above the ravine. As they did, they had all seen a huge, red dragon form and fly down into the ravine, all of them wondering what the dragon was and where it had come from. When he saw a glowing, red orb in the cliff wall, Rude knew exactly what had happened—Ed had completely accidentally come into contact with a shard of Materia hidden in the canyon wall.

He had been terrified he'd lost a young man he was quickly coming to care about as a friend, or perhaps a younger brother or son.

However, when the dragon had suddenly returned to the top of the cliff, just as they were arriving at it, the Summon held Edward in its front claws gently, and the boy was still alive somehow. Soaking wet, icy cold, still carrying some injuries to the head and neck, but alive, and able to be healed. Without hesitating as the Summon lowered the boy to the ground, Rude ran forward to gather the blond in his arms, calling to him to answer him.

It shocked him when the only answer he got was a weeping mess of sixteen-year-old who clung to him like a much smaller child.

" _The boy has experienced death. There are precious few ways of cheating it,"_ the Summon said quietly. _"How he somehow Summoned me even as he fell, I am uncertain. However, someone must retrieve my shard and place it in his care. I am deeply pained that I somehow caused his injury with no intent to do so."_

Fuhito made to go to the ledge, but the Summon blew a burst of flames at him, forcing the man and most of the villagers back with cries of fear. "You said someone needs to retrieve your shard!" Fuhito gasped at the dragon.

It was becoming faintly transparent as it replied, _"Yes. I will not have one such as you, one seeking destruction and power, hold my very essence, whelp, as you would not give it to my chosen. You will use my power for a purpose both unjust and cruel, and I will not be used so."_

A long, shocked silence fell before Rude looked at Nanaki and asked, "Nanaki, would you?"

The startled cat looked at Rude, then at the dragon and asked, "May I?"

For a moment, the dragon seemed to stare deep into the mountain lion's soul, then gave a nod and said, _"Proceed."_

With its approval, Nanaki jumped quickly to where the dimmed glow in the wall came from, gently pulled the orb free with his teeth, and jumped back down to where Rude and Ed were, the blond teen still crying brokenly as the older man held him. It only took him a moment to pass it to Rude, who then slipped the orb into Ed's pocket and looked back up at the slowly fading dragon—which he now knew was called Neo Bahamut.

"Thank you," the man said. "For bringing him here."

Nodding, the dragon replied, _"Finish his healing and let him rest. Inform him I must speak with him upon his waking."_

"I will," Rude replied with conviction, so Neo Bahamut dissolved.

At first, everyone was quiet, but then Rude recalled a Materia shard he kept on him but rarely slotted. Pulling it from his pocket, he popped out one of the Materia from his bracer—which one, he didn't actually care—and replaced it with the one from his pocket, a Mastered Restore. Once the Restore was slotted, he activated it to cast the strongest healing spell on it, Cure 3, on Ed, which healed all of the remaining damage to the teen...and which apparently also sent him almost instantly into sleep. That was worrying, but not nearly so much as the fact that Neo Bahamut had said the teen had experienced death.

How _had_ he cheated it?

Then he recalled Genesis and Ed's conversation about the arrays—one array of which had belonged to the Support Materia Final Attack. He also knew Ed kept a Revive Materia on him, so if he'd had the common sense to pair Final Attack and Revive, he could well have survived. Though, that would by no means make the experience of death any more pleasant—in fact, the very fact of survival may make it worse, and it was no wonder then that the sixteen-year-old had reacted so strongly.

"Do you think Edward would want to keep 'his murderer' close to him?" Fuhito asked quietly. Had Neo Bahamut not warned everyone present about the man, Rude would even have thought he truly meant well with the question.

"Whether he would or not is for him to decide when he wakes and is prepared to face what just happened to him," Rude answered instead, attention still on the boy in his arms, who was still trembling from cold, even in sleep.

As Fuhito stepped closer, however, Nanaki moved between them and growled lowly at the Wutain man, "As much as I respect your research and concern for the Planet, I also have the sense to _pay attention_ when a Summon as exalted as Neo Bahamut refutes a person. Please, Fuhito, keep your distance from them, Edward especially."

The man, knowing how dangerous Nanaki and Deneh could be, stopped and quickly backed away, intending to go to Bugenhagen to try to convince him to intervene so he could take the Summon.

At that moment, the innkeeper moved closer and said, "Rude, you should get him back to the inn to rest—I'll let you both stay free of charge for awhile while he's recovering. Come on."

"Thank you," the man answered as he rose with the boy and followed the innkeeper.

CA

When Edward woke during the night, he found himself tucked up against a much larger someone's side and was drawing a blank as to whose and why. It wasn't his brother, who was his size, and there was no way it would be his father—he'd already abandoned them—but it still felt like someone familiar to him. There was a gap in his memory, an incompleteness, he realized it almost immediately, and wondered why it was there, even as he turned his head sleepily to look around the room. He also didn't know where he was, come to think of it. He sure wasn't in Resembool with the rock walls and funky bedding, yet there was still something familiar about it.

A hand gently touching the back of his head and a voice asking softly, "How is your head?" made him look up at a man with Ishbalan dark skin, but bald and with brown eyes. His concern was obvious, and somehow, he felt comfortable with the man, even though he wasn't someone he recognized. Though, on that same token, the man was still familiar somehow, besides the Ishbalan skin tones and lack of Ishbalan red eyes.

"I—my head?" he asked in confusion.

With a deep sigh, the man murmured, "I was afraid of that."

"Of what?" Ed asked, now even more confused.

"You—died, and the experience was so traumatic you acquired partial amnesia," the man answered, though he seemed almost pained to be saying so much. Somehow, that was familiar to him as well, but he couldn't place why.

"If I died...why am I alive?" the boy asked in confusion.

The man reached over to grab something which looked like a bracer of some sort with glowing orbs on it. "You had Revive and Final Attack on this one."

And Ed drew a complete blank.

Sighing, the man asked, "You don't remember anything, do you? Junon or the journey from Costa del Sol to Cosmo Canyon?"

The boy had no clue what he was talking about, as he'd never heard of places like that on the world map. Though Junon could have been an Amestrian town, he guessed, but the rest weren't. "I—no. There's a—it's like time should have passed, except I don't think it has...Like, I don't—know you, but some part of me does, I don't know where I am, but there's something familiar about it. Where's my brother?"

A comforting hand rested on top of his head as the man said gently, "Dead for some time."

For a moment, Ed didn't react, but then he actually looked down at himself, feeling confused as he realized he wasn't ten, his body definitely wasn't the one he'd had at ten, while he and Al had been preparing to try bringing their mother back to life. Then he realized something was not right with his leg and pulled up his left pant leg to see—an automail limb.

His mind promptly shut down and he fell back into sleep, not knowing how concerned Rude was by what had just happened.

CA

Before dawn, Fuhito had left Cosmo Canyon, furious that Bugenhagen wouldn't let him have any of the Materia the boy had on him, not even Neo Bahamut, even without knowing what the dragon Summon had said. Other members of AVALANCHE stayed to watch over the village while he went back to Wutai. Ed didn't wake the next day, just remained in a deep sleep as Rude watched over him in concern, often joined by Nanaki, Deneh, or Bugenhagen. They could only hope he would be intact when he next woke.

 **Notes:**

(1) I added this later to clarify the situation a bit more based on later events, like why AVALANCHE isn't considered an actual threat until 'the invasion' (I'm not giving details because the event hasn't happened yet as of the date of this post, and I don't want to spoil the story for first-time readers, either) incident, regardless of people like Genesis, Sephiroth, and the Turks knowing about them.


	14. 14-Heading North

Heading North

It was two days later when the blond boy finally woke, but he did so while no one else was actively in the room with him. Not that they weren't nearby—Rude was only downstairs having a quick drink and meal—but Ed woke confused, mobile, and ready to leave the room. It only took the boy a few minutes to dress and leave the room, slipping out through the tavern below and into the town.

Quickly, he headed for the town exit, only to realize someone was standing guard there, so he quickly looked around the ledges and canyon walls around him—where the Hell was he?—until he found a path leading down to a lower level of the canyon trail. He took it, and got right down to the bottom before realizing he had no idea where he was or where he should go from there. Since he was on the north side of town, he kept heading north, hoping it wouldn't be too long until he found something useful.

What was it he was trying to escape from, though?

Also, he still realized he wasn't in a ten or eleven-year-old's body. How old _was_ he? Fifteen? That would mean he lost five years of his life somehow, or maybe more. Of course, he was depressingly—well, he hadn't grown much. What had happened to Al, exactly, and to his leg? And the scars on his shoulder...what were those from? And his longer hair? Especially, where was Al and how would he find him? First, he had to figure himself out and figure out where he was...

Suddenly, a sound like a phone ringing made him yelp and search his person for the source, which was a strange, silvery device in one pocket, opposite some kind of sphere he didn't bother acknowledging. It was still ringing, on the fourth now, so he—fiddled with it, managing to get it open and reading a name and phone number on the screen he could now see. By the eighth ring, he found the 'talk' button and pressed it, then held the device to his ear and mouth, mostly just guessing the position.

"Um—yes?" he asked warily.

"Oh, good, you _did_ manage to answer," a strangely cheerful voice commented.

"...Er, are you that person called Genesis Rhapsodos?" the boy asked tentatively. He again had the strange sensation of familiar not-familiarity.

"I am," the man agreed mildly. "Which side of town did you leave from?"

"Why, so you can come get me?" he asked angrily.

To his surprise, the man laughed. "Oh, no. I'm safely on another continent from you right now, so I couldn't go get you even if I _wanted_ to. No, I daresay you don't know where you are, right? I can give you directions if I know which side of town you left from. Oh, given your lack of memory currently, there're also things I need to inform you of or you might get into more trouble than you can manage."

"I'm strong," Ed felt the need to pout.

"Of course," the man agreed evenly. "I'm aware of that. But you're not omnipotent, and you _do_ have weaknesses, things you only became aware of recently. If you've forgotten all your recent memories, you won't know those things. Better to be safe than sorry, you know. Unless you've got a death wish? In that case, I'll leave you on your own."

"No, don't!" he found himself saying, even though a part of him had wanted to have the man do exactly that. Finally, after a short pause, he said, "I went north."

"North from Cosmo Canyon would be Nibelheim, at the base of the mountains. The town is about two days' journey from Cosmo Canyon past a river ford at about the half-way mark, and you didn't bring a tent with you for protection from the monsters overnight. The terrain isn't too tough in itself, mostly desert and grassland, but it will get colder as you go, and most of the monsters won't try to poison you or anything. Just try not to get hit if you wind up attacked, because you don't have anything to heal injuries and the monsters around there include Dragons—those could wipe out even someone strong in one hit," the man informed him, then he heard a door close as the man heaved a relieved sigh. "Finally, the privacy of my own office."

"What?" the boy asked, feeling a bit cheated for some reason.

"Oh, I was talking with you down the hall to my office, and there are some things I don't want to say publicly, you know. Anyone's weaknesses count amongst those, especially yours. First, though, I'm curious to know if anything you've seen looks familiar to you at all."

"Er..." How did he explain that? "Well...I sort of thought that darker man looked familiar, but I don't know why, and things like the room and bedding in the town I just left sort of did...When I looked at your name on the—phone, I guess—I though it was familiar somehow..."

"I see. That's actually a good sign. Now, on to the next topic, your weaknesses."

"...So what are these weaknesses you think I have?"

"Not think, _know_. In the world at large, no one knows what alchemy is, and you only talked with me about it because Materia works based on alchemic arrays, arrays which I am aware of. You can't go talking about alchemy to anyone but some of the people at Cosmo Canyon and to me, so you also won't be able to show it at Nibelheim. While you should be able to use it on the way there, it would be impossible for you to use it near Mount Nibel, because there's a Mako Reactor there. According to you, when you tried using it near a Reactor not long ago—the first Reactor you'd ever tried using it near—it just didn't work, and you admitted to having to rely on physical combat and Materia in those areas.

"Also, Materia themselves are debilitating to you, forcing you into a state where you effectively connect with all the knowledge stored in the Materia, but you become immobile and unaware of your surroundings in the process. You can't touch them with your bare skin unless you're using caution, and as far as I understand it, you also didn't bring along any of your bracers, weapons, or Materia—all but one shard which had been in your pants pocket. That one is powerful, but not something you can rely on or use frequently, so for the moment, make every effort not to touch Materia bare-skinned, and take care to pay attention to how well your alchemy is working. If it starts not working, get to a safe zone as quickly as possible."

"...I really forgot all that, things so important?" Ed asked, suddenly feeling lost.

There was a silence, then a small sigh as Genesis asked, "How old do you think you are right now? I mean, based on the memories you have?"

"Um...ten."

"...Ten? And you got down Cosmo Canyon's wall to the lower level on the north?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Good grief...I can only guess at how much trouble you caused your caregivers at that age. To the best of my knowledge, you're currently sixteen—your body, anyway. The amount of knowledge you'd have lost to wind up back at ten..." Another pause followed the words before the man said, "Just take care of yourself and try to recover the memory you suppressed. I won't lie to you—I doubt any part of what you'll remember will be pleasant, but you still need to know it if you want to survive in the Mt. Nibel area, unless you manage to get to Nibelheim, then just stay there."

"Hey! I know how to hunt and trap and how to make a campfire and all that! I can survive just fine!" the boy pouted again.

"Can you? That's another benefit, then. Just one question...The dark skinned man you woke with last night has been traveling with you for some time, his name's Rude. Would you like him to join you again, or would you rather stay on your own for now, Edward?"

The words and the memory of the concerned man from the time he'd woken in the night made him pause, then he said tentatively, "Not right now. I just...feel like I have to do this myself, whatever 'this' is."

"Huh," the man on the other end of the line puffed out. "Very well. Remember, your destination is north and only slightly east of where you are if you're straight north of Cosmo Canyon. Do you know how to use the device in your hand to make calls? That is, to actually use it to find a phone number and phone the person?"

"If I did, I don't now..." the boy answered with a small sigh.

"Then, how about if I call you, say, once a week—just to make sure you're okay?" Genesis asked.

"Hmm..." There were a lot of reasons Edward could have said no, but something that felt a lot like loneliness made him sigh, grumble, and say, "I guess that's okay. What if I don't answer right away?"

"I'll try calling...three times that day. If you haven't picked up by the third, I'll send Rude to Nibelheim to check on you. Otherwise, he'll wait at Cosmo Canyon for you."

"Okay, thanks."

"Off you go, then, and good luck, Edward." With that, the dial tone sounded, signaling the fact that he'd just hung up.

Shutting off his own phone took a few minutes—he finally found the 'end' button—then he started north again.

Everything was so weird. He was sure he wasn't in Amestris anymore, but had no idea where he _was_. How could alchemy not work? Also, if things were actually going to attack him, alchemy wouldn't do him any good, so he'd have to rely on fighting or running. There were so many things wrong with everything, and yet, it all seemed so natural, so if this was someone's prank, it was really detailed. He didn't think it was, so there was a good chance he'd meet those 'monsters' the man had mentioned.

But—dragons? Weren't they just fairy stories? Then again, what kinds of names were Genesis and Rude?

There were only a few minor diversions around canyon rocks leading out of the desert region and into a grassland. He was hungry, but since he knew how to hunt from his stay on Yock Island, it didn't take him much time to catch a small, grasslands critter a lot like a mole to cook and eat. Taking the extra with him, he pondered catching another soon, hopefully so he'd have the evening meal and one for the morning without having to hunt for it. As far as he could tell, his more adult body was stronger and had better reflexes—wouldn't Teacher be so proud?—but it took more food to fill and was obviously used to eating well. And he really hadn't prepared for the trip, so he had no money or weapons.

He'd really screwed himself by running off on his own, hadn't he?

It wasn't until evening when he encountered his first monsters, a pair of things which looked a lot like bull-headed gorillas with big horns and spiked arms with big claws on front and hind paws. At first, they seemed intimidating, but Ed quickly noted how they weren't all that fast—but just fast and strong enough to deal with. When they tried to attack him, he jumped back from the first attacks, but then shot forward between them, hitting each with a good punch and kick on the way. They both swung blindly at him, enraged, but wound up hitting each other—prompting them to begin fighting each other and ignore him.

That taken care of, he made his way the rest of the way to the ford, where there was a floating bridge sitting across the water. There were no trees on the side he was on, so he crossed to the other one where he could see a lone tree near the shore. Since he had to get out of the way of 'monsters', he wasn't going to do that by sleeping on the ground, but in a tree, they'd have a hard time reaching him, and he'd done it before on Yock Island.

Not long after he'd climbed the tree, he heard a yip below him, so looked down—and just stared at the brown, maned wolves he saw there, suddenly very glad he'd had the sense to climb a tree. Especially when there were three right below him, another two groups of three several yards away, and another two groups of two around the other side of the tree. It was probably the whole pack, assuming these wolves were like the ones in Amestris, but at least they looked mostly like normal wolves, save the mane.

When morning rolled around, he found the wolves sleeping around the base of the tree, so ate the meat he'd carried into the tree with him—leftovers of the second mole-thing he'd found—and contemplated the group below him. They didn't seem hostile, but he doubted it would be safe for him to just jump down and walk away, even though he really didn't have another option. Why had they stayed around the base of the tree, anyway? Just because of the meat he'd taken up there, meat he now smelled like? That was even worse.

After a pause, Ed started trying to find something he could draw with, but up in the tree and without chalk, he had very few options, especially for the purpose of drawing an alchemic array. Finally, he realized his only two remotely viable options were tree sap or the green dye in the leaves around him, and the better of the two was the latter, so he began plucking leaves and crushing them between his fingers, then drawing a rough array on the tree trunk. With each leaf, the array took greater form until he'd completed it (this was only possible because the tree's bark was a fairly smooth variety) and was ready to activate it.

With fingers stained green, the boy placed his hands down on the circle's rim and sent his energy into the array as he'd always done, picturing grasping roots to grip and hold the wolves for a little while so he could put distance between them. Yes, the wolves could track him, but _would_ they? Most would only go so far as their territory border, and what he was about to do might just scare them off following him. With his thought about grasping but non-fatal roots, the tree's roots flexed and bent, then shot out of the ground to wind around the waking forms of the wolves, who were yipping, snarling, and struggling in shock and fear.

Assured they were bound, but would break free later, the boy jumped from the tree and bolted north across the plains. He had good stamina—he'd always had good stamina, actually—but his new, older body had more of it still, and he could set a good pace without running out of energy in an hour or two. Once he'd slowed from a full-out sprint to a quick jog, the pace didn't cause much, if any, distress on his muscles, so he had plenty of juice to keep going.

Until he needed to eat again.

His day after hunting for lunch kept about the same pattern as the day before, but besides that first wolf pack, the only wolves he saw were at a distance and didn't come towards him. It was coming up on dusk and he'd started looking for another tree to climb when he saw lights in the distance, up the slopes he'd been climbing for the last couple hours. If the lights were the town, it would probably be better to just try to get there rather than searching for a tree when there obviously were none nearby. As he kept moving towards them, the lights stayed steady and stable, so he felt sure he was right and it was the town ahead of him, so picked up his pace.

At about the time he noticed some wolves pacing closer to him on either side, he went into a sprint and made it to the town gate before the wolves reached him, much to the surprise of the guards at the gate. The two men had enough sense to fire off their guns at the wolves to scare them off, and pretty much shoved him into town as they kept their eyes on the grasslands in case more wolves came. Since he obviously had permission to enter town, Ed walked slowly down the main street to the square, feeling almost like he was back in Resembool. His panting from the sprint slowed as he took a look around, and he noticed the well in the middle of town. It wasn't a farming village, but it was similar enough, because other than a lack of space for fields, it looked so much like his hometown.

Near the well were several of the village children, mostly around twelve, thirteen, or fourteen, and there were only a few girls in the group. Didn't he look about their age? Moving closer, he noticed they were talking about leaving Nibelheim to go to Midgar and get jobs—mainly the boys planned to leave. There was one blond boy with blue eyes and really spiky hair with a short ponytail who kept himself apart from the rest and mostly sneered at them. Until the lot of the boys somehow decided they should leave town right that instant and turned to head towards the gate.

"You know the Nibel Wolves will eat you alive if you leave at night, right? And you haven't bothered to get together any supplies, and I _know_ none of you can hunt or even find your way through the mountain passes. But if you really want to get yourselves killed in your stupidity, be my guest," the blond boy told them harshly, making them all turn to face him in anger.

"You're just a coward, Cloud!" one of them accused.

"Now hang on—" a dark haired girl began.

And Ed cut in with, "Did you hear the gunshots earlier?"

Everyone looked at him in shock, one of the angry boys snarling, "Who the Hell are you?"

"Wolves chased me into town just now," Ed replied simply, and they all froze as their eyes widened in alarm. "I was lucky I was close enough to the gate, and that the guards scared them away. It's bad enough I got stranded by myself in the middle of nowhere, but at least I know how to hunt and trap and make campfires, even when I don't even have a knife on me. Can _you_?" It was a slight fudging of the truth, since he'd left entirely on his own power and had been given directions on where to go from the Canyon, but if it kept them from being stupid, well...

The other boys started looking away and shuffling their feet, and finally, one of them said, "Even if we leave, we should probably plan it at least a little bit..." The others gave mild agreements and they began wandering away, leaving behind the fourteen-year-old blond boy (did they really call him _Cloud_?), the brown-haired girl, and two other girls who had paler brown hair than hers, all three of whom looked about thirteen.

"You actually came from south outside of town?" the dark brown haired girl asked curiously, even as all four stared openly at him.

"Yeah," he agreed. "'Course, now I don't have anywhere to stay, but..."

"The guards must have been worried about you since you're a kid, about twelve or thirteen, right?" the girl asked. He gave a shrug, which she took as confirmation, since she asked, "What's your name?"

"Edward, or Ed for short," he answered with a smile.

"Aw, how cute!" the other two girls giggled happily.

"Cute?" Ed blinked.

"You are," the darker haired girl said, in mild amusement. "Most of the boys here look like chunks of rock, but you're all angles and slender and all. Anyway, I'm Tifa, the Mayor's daughter. These are my friends, Kinny, Fatina, (1) and Cloud. Well, Cloud will tell you he's not anyone's friend, but..."

Cloud snorted and said, "That's because all those boys are _so stupid_ and the girls don't want anything to do with me. Their loss."

Tifa sighed in exasperation as the two other girls glared at the blue-eyed blond, so Ed commented, "You're really arrogant, aren't you, Cloud? Can you actually back up that attitude with something besides words?"

While the three girls gaped at him, Cloud turned a glare on him and asked, "Can you back up _your_ claims? I mean, you have to have them yourself if you'll pick a fight with me."

"I'm not picking a fight, just making an observation and asking a viable question. Have you actually _earned_ the right to be an arrogant sod, or are you just putting on airs to compensate for your short-comings? Not that I ever understood the whole 'putting on airs' or 'arrogance' in the first place, but..." Edward knew he was taunting the other boy, but he really couldn't help it, as he knew he'd be able to take him anyway, in anything he chose to challenge him on. Well, if he'd lost six years of information, maybe not...

"Come mountain climbing with me tomorrow," Cloud offered mildly. "Tifa and I both know the mountain trails, so we won't get lost—at least, if you can keep up with me, _you_ won't. If I lose you, I'll go back to find you. In a few hours. We'll see how long you can survive in Mt. Nibel alone."

"Cloud, there are _Dragons_ there! He could die!" Tifa glared at her 'friend'.

"Yes, and someone smart can avoid their nests easily enough," Cloud countered.

"Dragons? Really?" Ed asked excitedly with a grin. "That sounds like fun! And I like hiking and stuff anyway, so it won't hurt. When do we leave?" He'd been honestly wondering about the Dragons since Genesis had mentioned them, so to him, he wasn't even taking a dare, but doing something he wanted to do anyway.

The others all had to stare at him for a minute, then Cloud chuckled, seemingly in a much better mood. He pushed off from the side of the well where he'd been leaning and said, "Come home with me. Mom won't mind. We'll leave after breakfast." The other boy then paused and asked, "Did you just completely miss the fact that I gave you a dare, by the way?"

"No, I knew you were trying to rile me up into doing something stupid, but that only works if I didn't want to do it in the first place," Ed answered dryly, gaze amused. "I've wanted to climb Mt. Nibel for awhile and never managed to get here before now to do it, so that accident earlier was very useful! Oh, thanks for offering me a place to stay."

"Sure," Cloud agreed, then led the way to a home down a side street from the square. "I never knew anyone besides Tifa who _wanted_ to climb Mt. Nibel before."

"I like to be active and do things that are interesting. You know, like exploring and seeing new things. Otherwise, everything's boring," Ed replied, and Cloud chuckled.

 **Notes:**

(1) Random names which never show up again, so feel free to forget them.


	15. 15-Exploring Nibel

Exploring Nibel

Cloud pushed open the door to his home and called, "Mom, I'm home! Do you mind if someone stays with us for awhile?"

They walked into a single-room home of a fair size, where there was a series of curtains to the right of the door, presumably to hide beds and a bathing area, and a large, open space which consisted of a kitchen, living area, storage, and dining room. Another small segment of the room was up a flight of stairs and seemed to almost be an 'enshrined space' in the home, where there were some pictures of a blond man. At the kitchen counter at the back of the room, a blond woman with her hair in a bun turned to face them in surprise, but didn't seem upset as she saw the boy beside her son. The resemblance between the mother and son was uncanny, mainly only different by gender, and the woman seemed to be much happier over-all than Cloud.

"No, I don't mind," the woman said. "So, who's your new friend?" she asked Cloud.

"His name's Ed," Cloud answered. "He got chased into town by the Wolves."

"Oh, dear," the woman gasped. "Are you all right? Were they able to hurt you at all before you got to town?" She started fussing over Ed immediately, checking him for injury—and he didn't want her to find his metal leg or the scars on his shoulder, mostly because he couldn't explain them.

"No, I'm fine, Ma'am," the boy answered, looking wryly amused as he gently pushed her away, though part of him wanted to let her keep mothering him, it had been so long since anyone had. Teacher sure hadn't been the 'mothering' sort, even though she'd shown how much she cared about them every time she took care of their injuries. "The guards scared them away before they could bite." He also made a mental note to figure out how he could explain the damage to his shoulder and leg.

"Oh, that's good," the woman smiled, ruffling his hair. "And please call me Rayne (1). Our home may be small, but you're welcome to anything we have here. Make yourself at home."

"Huh...Rayne...and Cloud..." Ed mused, then chuckled a bit. "Your family likes sky and weather names, don't they? Thank you for letting me stay, M—Rayne."

"My father's name was Storm (1)," Cloud filled in, grinning good-naturedly as Rayne laughed. Ed had to chuckle himself as he heard that.

"Come in, then. Supper's almost ready. Now I know why I just felt like I should make extra food tonight," Rayne said as she went back to the counter and stove to keep cooking the meal. "How long do you think it'll be before your family comes to get you, Ed?"

"It wouldn't be my family," Ed replied with a small shrug. "They're all dead. Some people I met in Cosmo Canyon might come looking for me if I don't answer my phone when they call to make sure I'm still alive. I just...didn't mean to get cut off from the man I'd been traveling with, and he'll probably head back to Cosmo Canyon to wait for me unless I ask him to come here." Again, he was not quite telling the whole truth, but it would be enough of a cover.

"Does that mean you can stay as long as you want?" Cloud asked curiously, moving over to the table to sit.

"Yeah, I guess. As long as there's something for me to do here," Ed agreed, joining him as he pondered the question of exactly what people would think of an apparent twelve or thirteen-year-old traveling alone. He was very unhappy with his height...

"Isn't it dangerous going off on your own?" Rayne asked in concern. "Did no one in your hometown ever take you in and make sure you had food and clothing and shelter?"

"Er...I don't think that's actually an issue when I can climb up and down the canyon wall north of the town in Cosmo Canyon...Like the one who mostly phones me said when he heard that, he can't believe how much trouble I get into at my age. It's more like, just try to keep me in one place if I don't have anything else to learn there," Ed explained wryly, producing a laugh from Cloud as Rayne turned to stare at him, mouthing the words 'Cosmo Canyon wall?'

After a moment, the woman turned back to the food and began shuffling things around as she found plates. "Well, regardless, you're welcome to stay here until you leave town. Hopefully to return to the man you left in Cosmo Canyon."

The meal was good, and he found he'd be sharing a decent-sized bed with Cloud since they only had two beds. The bathing area behind the curtain did actually have a functioning toilet and sink, as well as a tub, so he took a bath while he could and found himself grateful for the sweatpants and t-shirt Cloud gave him to put on after. As the other blond said, it was late summer in the mountains of Nibel, which meant it was getting cold—much colder than Cosmo Canyon. They'd probably have their first snows in a month, maybe a little more. In Ed's case, however, the sweatpants and t-shirt covered his leg and shoulder scars, so only if Cloud was really observant would he maybe see the metal foot, and Ed had already learned to move mostly quietly on it.

CA

Morning came without Ed having any more idea of how to explain away those features than he had the night before, but it wasn't needed yet anyway. Again, the meal was good, and Cloud himself prepared food for their lunch before they left to head to the north end of the main street. They passed up a hill and along a curving road, but at the side of the road was a wall and gate leading to a large, run-down mansion. Some kind of shriek came from the building's direction, making Ed blink in surprise.

"What's that building and what was the shriek?" he asked the blond beside him.

"It's Shinra Manor, where I think some Shinra people lived about twenty years ago and did some experiments. Dunno about the shriek, but everyone here thinks it's haunted. If they really did experiments here, it might be, too. We don't talk about it, but the kids dare each other to go in all the way to different parts of it. We know there are some monsters in there now," Cloud explained.

"Shinra Manor, huh? That sounds creepy," Ed commented as they continued past the building and left town, heading along the mountain pass to the north.

"I've gone in a few times, but it's not actually that creepy. If they ever _did_ do experiments there, we can't find any trace. Well, except for the safe no one can open."

"Really? Maybe no one was looking in the right ways or the right places. People are really blind to trap doors unless they're used to using them or know they're there."

"...I never thought of that before. Want to go there tomorrow? We'll be hiking most of today, after all."

"Sure," Ed agreed. "Sounds like fun."

"The only problem will be the monsters. At least there's only a few and once we get rid of them, they'll be gone until we leave for a few days."

"Wait, so, if we went in and cleared it out, then kept going back every day, the monsters wouldn't take up residence again?"

"Right."

"What kinds of monsters are they?"

"Mostly they're pretty easy to fight and don't really do much, but there's one really nasty one. It may be called Dorky Face (2), but, well—that thing can be as bad as a Dragon if you meet it alone because it confuses, silences, and paralyzes you. The last time I tried to get a count of them, there were about twelve or thirteen."

"...Who names those things?" Ed asked absently as they got to the actual paths up the mountain, the first stage of which was a rickety, old rope bridge.

"Dunno. That's just what they're called," Cloud answered, walking across the bridge planks without concern.

Ed followed him as he said, "We'll check out the Manor later, then. For now—I hope we see a Dragon!"

Cloud laughed and returned, "From a distance, anyway. Close up, we'll both be lizard food."

The pair explored the mountain paths and caves for a good part of the morning—until Edward suddenly found the cave floor falling out from under him as he yelped. Rather than falling into darkness like he thought he'd fall into, he fell into a soft, green-white light, hit something partway down which snapped under his weight like wood, and hit soft, moss-covered ground. It still knocked the wind out of him, but he blinked several times as he stared up at the hole he'd fallen through, Cloud staring down at him in concern from said hole.

"You okay?" the other boy called after a few minutes of letting Ed catch his breath.

"Yeah—just had to catch my breath. What did I fall into?" he asked, slowly sitting up and looking around.

He could see a largely moss-covered cavern floor with a large tree growing up one side of the cavern, though it had sparse leaves, and in the middle of the room was a spire of rock about four feet tall with water pouring out from a basin-like formation on the top. The clear liquid had formed a puddle around the base of the pillar, and there were many green (and a few other-colored) orbs in the dish and water, making Ed blink.

"It looks like you fell into the Mako spring cavern—I'd never found the walking path to it. Hold on, I have a pretty good idea of where to go now. And stay there, since it's one of the safest places in Mt. Nibel. I'll get there as soon as I can. Oh, and if it's spawned more Materia yet after someone raided it several years ago, gather them up and we'll take them back to town to sell," Cloud said, then vanished from the hole without waiting for an answer.

Edward was known for being curious, but he'd also been warned about what he'd be facing if he touched Materia with his bare hands—and he had no gloves. At the current moment, his curiosity involved the Mako spring, as it basically meant the 'Mako' looked like water, but he was sure it wouldn't register that way if he accessed the first stage of alchemy. Since he needed time to think about what he could do to safely pick the shards up, Ed turned his attention to the 'Mako' in the basin and pool, dipping his fingers in it as he tried to determine what it was.

Very quickly, he realized two things. The first was that something was interfering with his ability to use even the first stage of a transmutation, which gave validation to what Genesis had told him, since Cloud had also mentioned the nearby Reactor. The second was that the liquid was effectively an amalgamation of liquid souls with an identity of its own while carrying memories and essences of people, plants, and animals. He couldn't separate them out, but that was basically what Mako was.

Liquid souls. That was frightening in some ways, yet the substance seemed to actually be a soothing, healing, and gentle force, the kind he'd associate with a loving mother—like his own, or Cloud's.

Not yet ready to touch the orbs, Ed looked around again and realized a branch of the tree had broken off when he'd fallen on it, though it was a smaller one, thankfully. It was about four feet long, with about a foot and a half of that being about two inches thick and the rest tapering into a narrow tip. Small twigs branched off it every half-foot or so, and a leaf or two grew off each twig, the leaves a deep emerald with an oddly crystalline appearance. Picking it up, he had a sudden urge to take it with him, so he pulled off the bag Cloud had prepared for him to take on their trek and began digging through it, making space for the branch—and finding a pair of leather gloves while he was at it.

Problem of Materia contact resolved, the blond settled the stick in the pack, then pulled on the gloves and began searching through the orbs in the spring, pulling them out and laying them on the ground in piles of ones which registered the same name in his mind. By the time he was done, he had several piles, including one of some single-copy orbs, and each of the others had no less than four in it. The four-or-more Materia types ranged from Fire to Restore to Seal and were all colored in shades of green, and the single-copy ones included a Float (3) (the only green orb which was a single), a yellow colored Manipulate, the blue Elemental and All, and purple Guard Plus and Strength Plus. What a colorful pile that one was.

He didn't know what those meant yet, as he hadn't tried touching them with his bare skin, but instinctively, he knew he wanted the Float, All, and Strength Plus, so tucked those in his pocket with the orb he already had there. Once he'd done that, he proceeded to ignore their presence and test the effects of the 'debilitation' Genesis had warned him about by touching one green orb with his bare hand.

If he had ever doubted Genesis' honesty, he no longer did by the time he managed to force-break the connection between himself and the orb, which had been a Restore. As interesting as the information and the arrays were, he really completely blanked out and couldn't see or hear anything but what the orb forced on him. It was a really good thing he didn't actually want any of the other orbs, but he still had just enough curiosity while waiting for Cloud to touch some of the other orbs and determine what they did. The ones he chose were Elemental, Guard Plus 3, Manipulate, and one Ice Materia shard, giving him a basis for how the various things would function.

Actually, if he thought of it, Cloud had a bracer with four slots on it which looked like they'd fit the orbs, and Manipulate—could it work on a Dragon? If so, it would really do the fourteen-year-old blond very well. Elemental if paired with something he wanted to be defended from would work well, too—probably fire if the Dragons had that particular elemental ability. And Guard Plus would help to compensate a bit for Cloud's lack of physical training if he got into a fight. Not that the other boy was unfit, but being generally fit and being fit for combat were two different things, and Ed knew Cloud didn't have the latter, even though he'd done a bit of training.

So, with the Materia still sitting out, he sat and waited for Cloud to get there, which he did soon after—and immediately said, "You didn't bag them up!"

"Since this seems to be a safe place, I think we should eat lunch and talk about which ones you're going to keep for yourself and how we'll split the rest up once you've picked yours," Ed replied evenly.

Cloud blinked, then blinked again, then asked, "Why do you think I should keep any of them?"

"...Are you an idiot?" the long haired blond sighed, making Cloud glare at him. Before the blue eyed blond could say anything, Ed went on, pointing at the bracer Cloud wore, "You can put some in that, right?" When Cloud blinked again, then nodded tentatively, the gold eyed blond said, "So, you should be using some. Like, do you know what Manipulate Materia does? It works on most monsters, and if it works on Dragons, it would be a huge boon and a protective measure."

Blue eyes blinked one last time before Cloud flopped down to sit cross-legged across from Ed. "So, I guess I see your point. Are you sure you don't want it?"

"I chose mine already, three I thought somehow I'd want to keep."

"Which ones?"

"Float, Strength Plus, and All. There was only one All."

"Okay, and the ones left of the singles are which ones, besides Manipulate?"

"Guard Plus and Elemental."

"...Guard Plus I can see is good...but Elemental? I don't have a weapon."

"From what I could tell about it, if you put it in armor, it'll give you defense against the element it's linked with."

For a moment, Cloud was silent, then he murmured, "Oooh...I'd like it better on a weapon, but that's good, too—especially with the Dragons' fire attacks. Maybe..."

Ed watched as the other boy sorted through the Materia which were left, pulling out one each of the four 'elements' and a Restore, and taking the three single orbs. In his bracer, he put in the yellow and purple ones in the non-linked slots, then set the blue orb and a green Fire orb in the linked pair. The other green orbs, he put in the pocket on the front of his bag, then considered the ones which were left.

"There are a lot more than I thought there would be," he commented. "It's good, but still...we'll both have a lot of money if we sell these."

"How about we split them equally, but ones where there's an extra—an odd one out—you can take the extra to help cover the fact that I'm staying with you?" Ed offered.

"Hmm, I guess. Or you could take the extras and hand the gil for them to my mom."

While they pondered it, Cloud pulled out their sandwiches and the two ate. Finally, they decided on Cloud's plan and split up the Materia appropriately. Once they finished, they continued along the trail, finding their way out of the cave and all the way up to the Reactor before heading back down. It was a little past the normal suppertime by the time they got back, so went back to Cloud's home for the night, where Rayne had kept supper warm for them. They slept well and went to the Materia shop—which was also the general store—in the morning to sell their haul, both making quite a bundle as Ed watched the calculations with curious intensity.

When they left the shop, Cloud chuckled and said, "Teach me that look which kept him from cheating us out of some gil, please?"

"What look?" Ed asked in surprise. "You mean just watching really closely and intently? That's all I did—I paid super-close attention. It's harder for someone to cheat you when you're obviously paying them that much attention, so they usually don't try." Of course, he didn't need to tell Cloud he wouldn't have known they'd been cheated, anyway, because he had to learn (or re-learn) the money system, and had been watching so closely for that reason.

"Ah. Good tip," Cloud answered. "Shinra Manor now?"

"Yes! You can test your new Materia, and I'll just kick their asses. It'll be fun!" Ed offered happily.

The words made Cloud laugh as he led the way to the Manor and opened the lock on the gate. Before long, they had gotten in the front door and closed it behind them so they could explore and clear out the resident monsters at the same time. Since the Manor was an enclosed space, there were only so many monsters which could fit in it, and the first thing they encountered were four Dorky Faces. Ed had to admit they were pretty dorky, since they looked like up-side-down pumpkins made into smiling jack-o-lanterns and which had spiked, while, cloth circles like dresses attached to their 'necks'.

Cloud used Manipulate on one while Ed jumped at two of them to attack them, slamming his foot into one and his fist into the other, causing both to hit opposite walls and collapse to the floor. The last spat out a purple haze, making Ed dizzy, and Cloud had the one he was controlling fight the last, causing them to destroy each other after about a minute as Ed crept in Cloud's direction with a sudden urge to attack the other boy. The dizziness went away with the last two Dorky Faces' defeat, and Ed raised a brow at a wryly-grinning Cloud from about three feet away.

"...Okay, I see what you mean about those things being dangerous," the long haired blond commented, and Cloud nodded.

"That's actually the easiest battle with them any of us have ever had," the spiky haired blond commented. "Manipulate sure is useful."

From there, they found a number of other monsters as they explored. It began with four Gargoyles (4), which were grayish-purple demon-humaniods with red wings, one in each room where they appeared, the two front corner rooms on first floor and the two back corner rooms on the second floor. Some bizarre mirror monsters called Mirages (according to Cloud) sometimes appeared with Dorky Faces and sometimes on their own. One pair of Mirages (5) were in a room on the first floor, another two were in the opposite first floor hall, and another were in the second floor hall leading to the back room on the right. Gargoyles were thick-skinned and took work to take out, but didn't really do them a lot of damage as they both had high dodge, and the mirrors were oddly easy to take out as long as they didn't use magic.

Every other battle was against Dorky Faces or Dorky Faces and Mirages. The large room on the left hand side of the first floor had another four Dorky Faces (that time, it was Cloud who was affected by the purple haze), while two Dorky Faces and a Mirage had taken up residence in the middle room on the first floor, right hand side. The back room there was mercifully clear, as was the small sunroom-greenhouse on the second floor left hand side, but the room at the front of the house next to the sunroom had a Dorky Face and two Mirages. The last two rooms on the second floor front right had two Dorky Faces with a Mirage and three Dorky Faces, respectively. That last room also had a stone, curved wall which seemed out of place to Ed.

Since they had cleared out all the monsters—and said monsters had fled the house if they'd survived the attack—the two boys went back to the main floor to actively look around for items of use or curiosity. They'd found the safe in one of the rooms there had been a Gargoyle, but the locking mechanism was far too touchy and they didn't know the code to open it. With the monsters around, the place had actually not gotten very dusty, but there was still a thin layer on most of the place with prints showing where the Gargoyles had landed, and in several places, papers had been blown around.

Finally, they decided to eat lunch and search more after eating.

 **Notes:**

I made Shinra Manor as close to accurate as I could based on how it was laid out in both FFVII and Crisis Core (primarily FFVII, though, because the lab rooms in the basement are really bare in Crisis Core and I really think they'd have more in them like they do in FFVII—that's next chapter's description).

(1) Since we're never given Mr. or Mrs. Strife's names (believe me, I looked!), I thought these names would be suitable. :D

(2) Dorky Faces are really irritating—not hard to take out, just a pain, and that's true of all the games they appear in (Crisis Core and FFVII for sure).

(3) Float is my own creation in FFVII, but the spell existed in most previous and following Final Fantasy games.

(4) Gargoyles are there in Crisis Core, but I don't think they're in Shinra Manor in any other game. I thought it would be a nice touch to have them as sentries in the corner rooms.

(5) Mirages are only in the FFVII game, but I figured I would throw them in here, anyway.


	16. 16-Shinra Manor

Shinra Manor

Once they'd finished eating, Ed went back to the room where the majority of scattered papers were and began searching through them as Cloud watched curiously. The golden eyed boy soon found a set of papers which were different from the others, held down by a plain, gray paperweight. There were only two sheets there, so he read the first out loud.

"'I must get rid of all those that stand in the way of my research. Even that one from the Turks.'" Cloud gasped at the name, making Ed glance up sharply before going back to reading. "'I scientifically altered him, and put him to sleep in the basement. If you want to find him, then search the area. But...this is merely a game I thought of. It is not necessary for you to participate if you don't want to.'" (1) After a pause following the first page, Ed frowned and said, "'Scientifically altered' makes me think he was a human experiment, maybe like a chimera."

"A what?" Cloud asked, looking a bit ill and confused.

"It's like taking two unrelated things and mixing them together," the other blond said absently. "Like a dog and a snake or something. Some people use humans to do it, and that's illegal back home. The form resulting from the combination is called a chimera, no matter what it looks like. Can I read the second page now?"

"Yeah, go ahead. It said something about a game?" the blue eyed blond asked.

"'Move the dial on the safe carefully, but quickly. You have 20 seconds. You can not go past the numbers while turning. The 4 hints for the numbers are...

"'dial (1) The lid of the box with the most oxygen.

"'dial (2) Behind the Ivory's short of tea and ray.

"'dial (3) The creek in the floor next to the chair on the second floor...then to the left five steps, up nine steps, left two steps, and up six steps.'" Ed stopped there as there was nothing else written on the page.

"...And what's the fourth? He said there were four clues, right?" Cloud asked, moving over to look at the sheet.

"Nope, not written in normal ink, anyway," Ed answered, then held the paper up to the strongest source of light they had. Faint lines below the note for dial 3 told him all he needed to know. "Invisible ink—it's written in invisible ink."

"...There's such a thing?"

"Of course. I've used it before, too. Only once, though, while I was at Teacher's."

Rising, Ed picked the letter up and put the top one in his pocket while keeping the bottom one with the clues in his hand. "So, let's see if we can solve the riddle and get enough light on the letter to see the invisible clue."

"One said 'behind ivory's ti and re', right? That's the piano in the room next to us, on the other side of the hall," Cloud said.

Blinking at him, Ed asked, "How do you know that?"

"Tifa has a piano in her room, and sometimes we play it. Some of the notes are 'ti' and 're', and there's a song to remember them where they're equated to the tea you drink and a ray of sun. It's probably near, on, or in the piano next door."

"Let's have a look and see."

They went back to the foyer, then to the hall door on the left-hand wall, down the hall and into the large room with the piano in the corner just to the right of where they'd come in. They searched around it—Cloud even played it a bit—and finally found something written on the floor almost right in the corner of the room. It was a small note which just said '(2) Left 10' with nothing else. Ed wrote it in on the paper beside the note for dial 2, then looked at the two clues again.

"I think the first one is in the sunroom where the plants were, since plants create oxygen," Ed said at last. "But there are a lot of chairs in here..."

"The one in the room with that stone wall had a creak right in front of it, though. I noticed it when we walked in. I could try searching for the third one while you see if you're right about the first?" Cloud offered.

After a pause to consider that, Ed nodded and offered the paper to Cloud. "Okay, let's meet in the upper foyer hall once we're done. You'll need that for the instructions, and we can write down the numbers once we've met up again. After that, if there _is_ enough light in the sunroom, we'll go back there to read the invisible one, then go to the safe from there."

"Okay, sounds good," the other boy agreed, taking the paper.

Both headed upstairs, parting ways in the same hall they planned to meet in later, and Ed went to the sunroom, blinking in the light coming in from the windows. It would have been quite a nice room had it been taken care of for the last however many years it had been left alone, though it said something about the plants that over half of them were still alive regardless.

In the middle of the room was a trunk-like box which looked to be the only movable thing in the room, and there was obviously no writing on the floor or small tables the plant pots sat on, not even under the pots. As such, he moved over to the trunk and opened it—and stared at the gun in the box. Picking it up gently, he examined the box itself and found a number written on the inside of the lid, '(1) Right 36'. Well, the question was answered, and it looked like he now had a functioning weapon to fight any other monsters with. If there were other monsters to fight, and if he bothered to actually pull the trigger on the gun rather than fighting like he usually would.

As he reached the mid-point in the upper foyer hall, Cloud came around the corner of the upstairs hall and called, "It was written on the floor—we'd have walked on it when we came through before. Did you get your number?

"Yeah. And a gun," Ed answered.

"A gun?" the other blond blinked as he joined Ed in the upper foyer hall. "Is there enough light in there? The rooms on my side were all dingy."

"Sure is. Let's write the numbers down first, though," the golden eyed blond said as he held his hand out for the paper and pulled the pen from his pocket. Beside the note for dial 1, he wrote the number he'd found, then looked pointedly at Cloud.

"It said 3, Right 59."

Writing that down beside dial 3's clue, Ed led the way back to the sunroom and held the paper up to the very bright light from the windows there. He could then read, 'dial (4) Right 97', the actual number required for the last digit on the safe. Writing it down beside where the invisible ink was, he grinned and held it up so Cloud could see it. The other boy also grinned, then led the way back to the safe.

They tried for about two hours to open the safe, but had no luck, as the numbers were exceptionally touchy. Ed was getting better at it and didn't want to go, but Cloud got bored and said he was going home, so the long haired blond waved him off absently as he kept fiddling with the numbers. (2) Every time he manipulated the digital dial to trigger each number, lock the number in, and continue, he learned more about when to stop, when to slow down, and when to 'spin' the dial as fast as he could. This level of technology was honestly amazing, and learning to manipulate it the right way was both challenging and fun.

As intent as he was on what he was doing, the boy didn't realize he'd actually gotten the safe open until he was tossed back and hit the floor hard. A 'tink' on the ground near his head made him glance from the distorted monster which had fairly exploded from the safe to a red orb near his head. With his training in combat, he could easily tell the monster was too strong for him alone, even if he used the gun, so instead, he made an instant decision. Even as the monster roared and charged at him, he squeezed his eyes closed and clapped his bare hand over the red orb.

The moment he was dragged into the Comprehension phase, he registered a confused, sleepy presence—and mentally shouted, _:Help!:_

In an instant, the sleepiness vanished and energy surged. From outside the Manor, a person would have seen a bright light flash from the windows of the room at the back of the house on the left hand side of the second floor, then go out. Inside the room, light and darkness flared as though they had been dragged to another dimension, and the monster was struck with a glowing, golden lance as a white-clad warrior on a white, six-legged horse threw said lance down from atop a stone pillar as though spear fishing. When light flared again for the warrior's disappearance, the monster collapsed, and Ed fell into unconsciousness.

Thankfully, it only took the boy a few minutes to wake up, and he was no longer in direct contact with the orb. Sighing and pushing himself up as he worriedly glanced around for the monster, he realized it was laying on the floor in front of him, not moving as bits of green light like fireflies broke off slowly from its body. Since it was clearly dead, he carefully sat down again and touched the Materia shard with one finger.

 _:Are you well, Sentinel?:_ the presence in the orb asked immediately upon contact as Ed tried to get control of the Comprehension stage by focusing on the arrays. At first, he couldn't answer, and the being—called Odin, like the god in one of the old legends from Drachma—waited patiently for him to get some control over the effect.

Finally, he answered, _:Yes, it seems the monster's dead. I never thought someone would stick a monster in a safe and lock it in for however many decades it's been. What's a Sentinel?:_

 _:That would be an unjust punishment. Whatever the monster may have once been it likely lost itself to insanity long ago. As to the other...I have no actual words to explain that currently. Another Summoned being may be better able.:_

 _:Oh. Yeah. I don't think it ever was sane, though, and that just made it worse. Thank you for—taking care of it.:_

 _:Sentinel, and powerful, you may be, yet you are far from omnipotent. You were wise to realize you were in need of assistance and to call for me.:_

 _:I'm just glad it died in one blow...:_

 _:I, also, am glad I struck such a powerful blow with Gunge Lance. Normally, I could only have slain an opponent in one blow were they susceptible to Steel Bladed Sword, which is capable of causing instant death, regardless of the opponent's strength.:_

 _:Wow...I was really lucky your shard landed beside me just then.:_

Odin's amusement was palpable, so Ed lifted his finger off the orb, then found the pair of gloves he'd kept on him since the day before, when they'd gone hiking. With those on, he picked up Odin's Materia shard and put it in the pocket where he kept the other four shards he was going to keep on him. He still hadn't looked at the first one which had been in that pocket, and had no idea what it was. He didn't _want_ to know.

With everything else taken care of and the strange-looking, rainbow-colored, vaguely humanoid monster was being eaten away by the soft, green light, Ed moved over to actually look inside the safe. Sitting in the bottom was an old-looking key—he couldn't see anything else in there, so picked up the key and thought critically about where a trap door to the basement would be. He'd already checked the things on the first floor which he'd thought could have been while Cloud had been with him, but they hadn't, so knew he'd have to check the second floor—but where?

After thinking for a few minutes, he realized there was one thing on the second floor which wasn't even visible on the first, so went upstairs to the front, left-most room, the one where the creaky floor in from of the chair and the curved stone wall were. If it wasn't the front room, it would be the back room where the wall also showed, he was now sure of it. As such, he began running his hands over the stone wall, feeling for triggers or indents where triggers could be hidden—and quickly found one at about the height of a doorknob, which caused a section of the door to shift back and slide to the side, leaving the latch within trigger range.

It led to a circular 'tower' leading down, the spiral stair old and rickety wood which proceeded downward against the wall. It descended down from the second floor, past the first, and to a finishing straight stair down about half the height of the basement. On the stair, he came across another two Dorky Faces and a bat which looked oddly purple with red highlights, though in the darkness, it could be mistaken as black. Since he had no other weapon and was in a precarious position on the stairs, he drew the gun and quickly shot all three, somehow knowing how to target. While the gun made quick work of that bunch, it apparently startled more bats into flying at him, eight in two waves of four and nine in three waves of three, not in that order, by the time he was done.

Proceeding the rest of the way down the stairs, he found himself attacked by two monsters which looked like a really bizarre cross between a human, a turtle, and a fish, which were mostly shades of green with a brown shell on their backs. (3) Since he was now in a fairly long, rough-walled tunnel which was fairly wide, he put away the gun and kicked the monsters' asses the old-fashioned way. They weren't that hard to beat, he quickly found, as long as he was decisive and didn't let them use their spears. Speaking of their spears, he also hijacked one of them to fight any other enemies with, then continued down the hall.

At the far end of the fairly straight tunnel was a door-shaped opening which looked like it led to some kind of room, and about a third of the way from that door-shaped opening, he caught sight of a fairly heavy door in the cavern wall. It had a locking mechanism on it, so Ed moved over to try it, only to find it locked. The key he'd found in the safe came from the pocket he'd put it in and he tried it on the door, causing the lock to pop open. Pushing the door open curiously, he was shocked to find several coffins and a pile of skulls apparently falling off the shelving unit at the back of the room. He began opening them, finding old newspapers and damaged and incomplete skeletons.

"Ew," the boy muttered as he moved over to the last closed coffin in something like morbid curiosity. As he got close, three more of those turtle-fish jumped out of the skull pile and attacked him, so he made quick work of them with the spear. They all lay dead next to the pile of skulls in the back when he was done, the spear stuck in one's neck.

Back beside the last closed coffin, he carefully lifted the locking latches and lifted the lid just a bit, and when he didn't smell any decay, he pushed it right off so it hit the floor on the far side of the coffin. Inside, he could see what looked like a man in his late twenties who had long, black hair, a red headband, almost-scarf, and cloak, and black leather top and pants. His boots were fairly plain, golden-hued, and with pointed toes, while one of his arms had a glove on it with a similar design. He was slender, fit, and toned, but while he was slightly on the pale side, he didn't look like a dead or decaying body.

Tentatively, Ed reached forward to touch the man's cheek—which was icy cold—only to yelp, then scream as a hand gripped his wrist tightly and the man in the coffin stirred. When the man's blood-red eyes opened and fixed on him without emotion, he just stood still and stared, hoping he hadn't made a huge mistake. The man's hand still held his wrist in a vice-grip, so he couldn't get away as things were, but if the man got up and out of that coffin, it would be a lot easier to break his grip and get away. If he needed to, he could even use the gu—

"What is a boy doing here?" the man asked in a soft voice which didn't seem to have much expression in it. Before Ed answered, he slowly pushed himself to a sitting position with his body turned to face his 'visitor', as he still hadn't let the boy's wrist go. "Have they done yet another experiment on a child?"

"A—what?" Ed asked with a sudden frown. "I'm not here because of that. This place has been abandoned for at least two decades, and me and a friend came here to look around. He went home when we couldn't get the safe upstairs open right away, but I like a challenge, so...Are you the Turk who got in the letter-writer's way?"

"...What letter?" the man asked in reply.

Looking at the wrist the man still held, he asked with a little grin, "Can I have my hand back, please?" The man looked at the wrist he held in mild surprise, then let it go, so the boy said, "Thanks. Here." He then pulled out the two sheets of the letter and handed them to the man, who took them and read them, then heaved a sigh. "Is something wrong?"

"Not especially. Hojo hasn't changed, though, if he turned finding me into some sick game. Yes, I'm the Turk." Since the man didn't seem interested in saying more, Ed stepped forward again and pulled the not-quite-scarf down from the man's neck so he could check for a pulse. As his hand touched the cold, bare skin, the man asked, "What are you doing?"

"Checking for a pulse."

"I don't have one."

"How can you be alive if your heart's not beating?"

"That was part of the experiments done to me. I'm a monster. And you shouldn't be here, child. This is a horrible place of nightmares."

"Maybe, maybe not. Do you care enough to make me leave?" When the man didn't answer, the boy gave him a grin and said, "Didn't think so. I'm gonna see what's at the end of the hall, then. Bye!" With that, Ed gave a wave and hopped over to the dead monsters to grab the spear he'd left in the last one's neck, then quick-walked out of the room, eager to see what else was in the basement.

The first room he came to looked like a cross between a science lab and a library, and two more of those turtle-fishes hissed and jumped at him from the wall behind him. Unguarded as he had been right then, the move caught him and threw him against the shelves at the far side of the room, which he hit with a pained yelp, then covered his head as some of the books and file folders fell off the shelves onto him. He really hadn't meant to get that beat up, but he'd stupidly let his guard down, and his 'most treasured' books were now helping beat the lesson into his head. The irony wasn't lost on him.

A hiss nearby made him react instinctively to his training with Teacher, so he dodged to the side and rolled, coming to his feet so he could see the two monsters' spears stuck in the wood of the shelves. Since he now had a free shot and the spear was in his reach, he dove for the handle, caught it, and slammed the spearhead into one monster's midsection as he used the long weapon to toss it aside. As he brought the spear back around, he sliced deeply into the second one's neck, nearly severing its head. Turning to face the one he'd tossed across the room, he noted the man from the coffin in the doorway, but went straight for the monster's throat like he'd done with the other one before turning to look at the man.

For a long moment, the man eyed him, then looked at each of the two dead monsters while Ed just waited. Finally he looked back at the boy's golden eyes as he asked, "Are you quite certain you were never used in any experiments?"

"Huh? Nope, never," the boy answered, frowning deeply. "Well, unless any happened in the time I can't remember right now."

There was a moment of silence, then the man asked, his voice vaguely alarmed, "You can't remember a span of time? How great?"

"Er...Well, the guy who checks in with me said I'd told him I was sixteen. My body, I mean. My memory is the same memory I had when I was ten. All the things I'd talked about with that guy, and what happened to my brother, even what happened to my leg, I can't remember any of it. Everyone in town thinks I'm twelve or thirteen, though, and I never bothered to tell them anything else," Ed explained, looking curious.

For a very long minute, the man said, "You must have been experimented on to be as strong and capable in combat as you are."

"Ha? No, I remember learning to fight from Teacher," Ed replied, now looking amused. "She was a really harsh teacher, but she was really good at it too. She had this one belief she always said to us, 'In order to train the mind, you must first train the body!' Try reciting all your really advanced lessons while trying to beat a master martial artist so strong she can wrestle a Dragon and win, and you learn really quick how to fight with the best of them and use anything you can to your advantage. Finishing my training with her is one of the last things I remember, and only my older body gives me any kind of benefit I wouldn't have had when I really was ten."

Since the man just stood there and stared like a statue, Ed shrugged and headed down the 'library hall' to the right of the room, and found himself in another library-like room, this one with a desk and chair to sit and read, write, or do research. Many of the 'books' in this library, however, were files which reminded him at a glance of the same kinds of notes alchemists used to keep records of their experiments and the results, so this was probably the lab where the experiments Cloud had mentioned had been done. At least there were no more monsters, and there were no other paths.

As such, he began pulling out random things which looked interesting so he could start reading—and quickly became engrossed in what he was reading. It was absolutely fascinating, and ranged from myth to history to science to biology to several other surprising topics. And those were just the books! He was so engrossed in reading, sitting on the floor beside one shelf in the back room, that he didn't notice anything else until the book in his hands was forcibly pulled out of them.

He looked up at the intruder with a glare, only to see the man setting the open book down on the desk. "I was reading that!" he complained.

"Go home. It will be here tomorrow," the man replied, making Ed stare, then leave.

 **Notes:**

(1) All of the text concerning the note, the clues, and the dial numbers comes directly from the original FFVII main game.

(2) Since Ed only really knows about steam technology as a ten-year-old, I could see him having trouble using a digital dial on a safe—a dial which really is very touchy in the FFVII game and often takes me several tries to get right. Cloud's excuse was that he didn't care very much so didn't try very hard, as the visit to Shinra Manor was really more at Ed's request than his own desire to go there.

(3) In Before Crisis and Crisis Core, there were sahagins in Shinra Manor's basement, but not in FFVII, which takes place later than in the other two games. Since this is an earlier time than FFVII (seven years earlier!), I figure the sahagins would still be there.


	17. 17-Jenova Projects

**A/N:** End of the first 'Edward arc' of the story...

Jenova Projects

When Ed got back to Cloud's home, it was the tail end of sunset and he was still surprised at himself for leaving when the man had told him to go. Why did the man care, anyway? He was a little upset about being interrupted, but as he'd been on his way out, his stomach had rumbled hungrily and he realized he hadn't eaten since lunch. Maybe the man had been right to kick him out for the night, he reflected grudgingly. Not to mention he wasn't so sure of his chances against an animated and sentient corpse if said corpse chose to make good on his threat to make him leave.

Knocking on the door, he found it opened by a worried-looking Rayne—who gasped, "Edward!" and engulfed him in a tight hug before dragging him inside. Cloud was sitting on the stairs to the raised part of the room, but the woman promptly shoved Ed into a seat at the table and took his cheeks in her hands as she asked, "Whatever made you go to Shinra Manor in the _first_ place? Why did you stay so long? The monsters—you could have been hurt! Or killed! Did you never think of that?"

As it turned out, she was just ranting the way his mother had done if he and Al had really scared her, and he stayed quiet while she did as he wondered how she could feel so strongly about a complete stranger. Well, an almost complete stranger. She had really been worried about him, and in the course of the rant, she made that more than clear, so he actually did feel ashamed for not returning sooner. Then again, when he found things to read, he always lost track of the time, so...

Finally, she ran out of steam and fell quiet as she tried not to cry, so Ed said contritely, "I'm sorry. I found books to read and lost track of the time. I'd have come back sooner otherwise."

She looked hard at him for a minute, the tears still in her eyes, but then gave him another hug. "Monsters are stronger and bolder at night. Make sure you're back by supper time from now on, otherwise you'll really be in danger," she told him.

Tentatively, he hugged her back and said, "Okay, I'll do my best to get back by supper time from now on, but there really are things to read there and I don't think anyone would be very happy if I took them out of the Manor, so..."

Rayne nodded against his cheek and said, "You're probably right, which just makes it so much more important that you come back before sunset. The worst part is that I won't be able to get anyone to go there to search for you if you don't come back...And even if they decided to humor me, there's no guarantee they'd _find_ you."

"Oh..." That was actually a good reason for her to worry.

After a few more minutes, she let him go and put a meal on the table at the seat she'd pushed him into, so he ate and he and Cloud were both sent to bed early. He guessed Cloud actually had gotten a lecture as well, but probably more along the lines of 'why did you leave Ed there alone?' than 'why did you stay so late?' It took only until they were side-by-side in the bed for Cloud to poke his side, making him look over at curious blue eyes.

"Did you get the safe open?" the other boy asked, his voice a low whisper.

Ed gave a wry grin and whispered back, "Yeah. And I found the basement. That's where I was reading." Something made him not mention the man he'd found, though he wasn't entirely sure what it was or why.

"The basement? Were experiments done there like the adults think?"

"Yeah, but I haven't read those files yet, I've just been reading the books."

"Did you meet more monsters?"

"Yeah—the gun I found helped on some of them. One type was sort of a turtle-fish with a spear, so I hijacked the spear and fought more of them with it."

"Turtle-fish? A Sahagin?"

"Probably."

"Wow. Did you get them all?"

"Unless they have a hidden tunnel into the basement, yeah."

"Creepy. I don't want to go back there. Anyway, I have some things I have to do in town and some hunting before the snows fall, so I can't take much time at the Manor. You can come with me whenever you want, or go to the Manor."

"Okay. I need breaks from researching, too, so maybe sometimes I'll go with you. I liked hiking in the mountains, anyway. And it looks like I'll be here in the evenings, so if you're here too, let's spar!"

"Good, and sure, that sounds like fun! Good night, then."

"Yeah, good night."

CA

The next morning, Cloud headed out of town by the front gate with a couple other boys and two men who had hunting and trapping gear, and had gone without saying much to Ed. The other blond also didn't look very happy, and the other boys were jeering at him while the adults did nothing to stop them. Since the other boy had gone, Ed sorted out the money he'd made from selling the Materia and set aside a portion of it for Rayne. He then gave that to her to help cover his presence in their home, then bolted from the home before she could try to give it back. It didn't take him long to get back to Shinra Manor and head down to the basement, where he found the book he'd been reading still sitting where the man had put it down the night before.

Sometime during the day, he found the book being pulled from his hands again, and glared up at the man, noting again how his irises were blood red—but still ticked by having his reading interrupted _again_. Before he could say anything, though, a package of jerky was dropped in his lap—and his stomach rumbled to tell him it was probably lunchtime or later. His gaze went back up to the man, who just silently gave the book back and walked away once he was sure the boy had registered the food in his lap.

As such, Ed began munching on the jerky as he went back to reading. He wasn't interrupted again until later, when the book was pulled away and set aside, not given back. "Go rest," the man said, and once again, the boy felt compelled to do as told. If the man could do that with just a simple statement, he'd have been a really good father, and that was besides the fact that he didn't actually want to challenge the corpse.

When he got back to Cloud's, it was about supper this time, not later. Rayne was happy, especially since Cloud wouldn't be back at least until the next day. She thanked him for the money he'd given her for his upkeep and told him not to run off without getting a lunch meal next time he planned to be out all day. It was a bit odd to sleep in Cloud's bed alone, but he still slept well. In the morning, he didn't run off quite so soon, and found Rayne packing him up a bag and some lunch, which he took with him to the Manor and made sure he set his lunch beside him while he read.

The only real difference that day was that the man tugged the book away around lunchtime and pointed at the meal Rayne had made for him, so he stopped long enough to eat. Around suppertime, the events were the same as the previous two days. He was making good progress on the books, but he felt like something was really wrong with people's common sense by some of the things they were saying. It was like they couldn't tell the difference between a product and a bi-product, or between a virus and a fungus, or between a symbiont and a parasite.

After another good rest that night, he was back at Shinra Manor the next day, still reading more of the books, only to be interrupted by a phone call. It made him jump in surprise, and brought the nameless Turk to the entrance to the room where he was reading, so he quickly pulled out his phone and looked at it. Genesis' number showed on the display, which reminded him of their agreement, and part of him was happy the man was keeping up his end of the bargain.

"Hi Genesis," he said as he answered the phone.

"Hello, Ed. How have you been?" the man asked cheerfully.

"Good, actually. I got to go hiking with one of the boys in town, and we found the natural Mako spring. Well, more like the ground gave out under me and I landed in it." He paused while Genesis laughed. "Then I also found out what you meant about how I react to Materia."

"Were you safe when you found out?" the man on the other end of the phone asked in concern.

"Yes, fine. I was still at the spring and I guess monsters don't go close to them. No Dragons yet, though I really want to see one—especially if I'm with my new friend when I do, since he has a Manipulate on him."

A snort answered his statement, and Genesis asked, "You like to live dangerously, don't you? Well, at least you're paying enough attention to answer your phone. What else have you been up to?"

"Reading, mostly. The two of us had fun killing everything in Shinra Manor. Well, some of the monsters might have run away, but still. So, it's basically safe here now, and I started reading the books in the basement."

He happened to glance up and saw an alarmed expression on the red-eyed man's face, but Genesis was already talking. "Shinra Manor, huh? I'd heard it was a pretty creepy place myself, but I've never had a chance to head into that area to see what it was like. As long as you don't actually take anything out of it, you should be fine, unless it's something like Materia shards, which they can't trace anyway."

"Um...did you just tell me it's okay to rob Shinra's Materia as long as I don't take anything else, Genesis?" Ed asked dryly, trying not to laugh. The words got a laugh from Genesis and a blink from the man in the room with him.

"Well, I consider it 'acquisition' rather than 'robbing' but I guess it amounts to the same thing. Except that I work for them, and as long as I do, anything I take is still technically theirs, so they probably won't get very angry, anyway."

"I don't work for them, though, so how does that logic apply to me?"

"Hm, you remember Rude, right?"

"Of course."

"He's a Turk, so he works for them. As I understand it, he first met you because your sixteen-year-old self was being scouted for the Turks, and they're giving you a lot of liberties—they _really_ want you. That's why I think you could get away with it."

"So...Am I allowed to hijack knowledge from them, as long as I don't physically take anything with me?"

"The Turks are heavy into information and data, so I'd be surprised if they got mad at you for that. As long as you don't join AVALANCHE or any other terrorist groups, you know—then they'd consider you a top-rank threat. I'd rather not go up against those odds. So I guess you could say there's conditions to you 'hijacking' that knowledge."

"Ooooh...Okay. Well, I don't know what my sixteen-year-old self wanted to do before I lost my memories, so I guess I have to wait on that, but so far, all I've been reading are the books here, not the research notes."

"That's fine, then. Anything else to report?"

"Nope, not really. I think I've been adopted by my new friend's mother, though."

Genesis chuckled and said, "That's not really a bad thing. Well, if that's all, then I guess I can let you go until next week, unless there's something else you'd like to share with me."

"No, nothing. I'll talk to you again next week, then. Thanks."

"Of course. Bye now, and be careful of the Dragons!"

"I will. Bye."

As he hung up, he looked at the uncertain-looking man in the doorway, waiting. As much as the man pretended not to care, it was obvious he did to some degree, or he wouldn't have kept making sure Ed ate and left for 'home' in reasonable time. Sure enough, the man showed again that he wasn't actually emotionless as he asked, "Was that actually safe to tell someone I assume is a Shinra employee?"

"Sure. He's the one who calls me every week, anyway," Ed agreed. "And he's not been behaving in any way except exactly how he told me he would."

"...I see..."

"Hey, I'm Edward, or Ed for short. What's your name?"

"...Vincent Valentine."

"I won't tell him, or anyone, about you. If you want to show yourself, that's up to you, but I like to learn, so I'm going to keep coming and reading, at least until the books are finished."

"I don't suppose I could stop you."

"Not really, unless you used real force."

"...Fine."

After that conversation, Ed went back to reading and Vincent left the room again.

CA

The next week passed pretty much the same as those last few days while Ed kept reading, though he and Cloud sparred most evenings with Tifa as well, and he took one day where he went with Cloud up the mountain to a foraging area near town. He had warned Vincent he wouldn't be there the next day for that reason, and when he returned the day after, he actually found the man waiting for him. It was almost as though the undead man had missed him, so Ed teased him about it a bit, then thanked him for looking out for him.

However, the longer the week progressed, the more Ed found something wrong in the books, so got up to look for files on 'Jenova'. There were quite a large number of them, based on 'Jenova', the 'Jenova Project', 'Project G', and 'Project S'. The more he read and compared, spreading the sheets and books out in the lab room where there was the most floor space, the more he found wrong with the whole premise of what they thought 'Jenova' was.

However, what horrified him was when he saw Genesis' name in the file for Project G, along with someone called Angeal Hewley. There was someone just called Sephiroth in the folder for Project S, who was like Genesis and Angeal, but healthy—yet what he was seeing was causing alarm bells to ring in his mind. How could Genesis, of all people, be one of the experiments Vincent had been so worried about? He was also worried about Genesis' health due to the difference between the two projects—the method of the cell implantation into them before they were even born. Mainly, the method, which _shouldn't_ have made a difference, actually _had_ made one.

As he became more and more terse and worried, Vincent spent more and more time staying near him, watching him with something like concern, but the man never really tried to look at any of the papers he pulled out, either. Maybe he wouldn't have understood them, or cared more about the effect they were having on Ed than what was tangibly written there. It didn't matter much, as it meant he was quickly becoming a constant in the boy's life.

Finally, his phone rang again while he was looking up some data on the Shinra employees who had been involved in the Projects. "Yeah..." he answered it absently.

"Are you all right, Ed?" Genesis asked, a worried frown in his voice at the response—or lack thereof.

"Yes, but I found some information I really think you need to know, because I'm sure your life and someone's named Angeal Hewley depends on it," Ed told him quietly, even as Vincent watched in concern.

"Mine and—why would mine and Angeal's lives be in danger? From what?" Genesis asked in surprise, honestly shocked by the words.

"Shinra was doing some experiments to create super-soldiers, and two different scientists and doctors worked on related projects. You and Angeal were the prototypes for the project which was ultimately rejected, but even back when you were babies, there were signs of something not right in you—something which was ignored when Project G was shelved. There was an entity they found and thought was the remains of an Ancient which was used as the basis for the experiments, and cells were taken from that entity and infused into you, but for some reason, the way they were transferred to you and Angeal was—incomplete, I suppose." (1)

"Which means what?" Genesis asked tensely.

"...It means you're both basically rotting from the inside out—degenerating is the technical term—and your bodies won't regenerate like they're supposed to. Worse, any sudden damage to you may send your cells into a mass die-off, and the projected result is that once it began, you'd just basically degenerate until you died. I've been going over the notes a lot since I found out, and I think all you would need to fix it is an injection of the cells from the other Project's prototype, but neither of the doctors will give them to you because you were part of what they view as one of the opposing Projects.

"You'd have to find a doctor outside Shinra, and if you can, ask the prototype from the other Project, Sephiroth, if he'd be willing to give you a blood transfusion. He has the cells in him, and those cells, even just a small number, say an ounce, should kick-start the cells in your body which are dying. I'm sure that Dr. Hojo guy won't give you the infusion himself because you're not his creations, and Dr. Hollander won't 'stoop' to asking Hojo for them. Please, Genesis...You'll die if you don't," Ed almost pleaded, not seeing the tight expression on Vincent's face.

The man on the other end of the phone drew in several deep breaths, then said quietly, "I—that's—a really tough pill to swallow, you know?" Ed just hummed in reply, and after a pause, Genesis said, "I'll see what I can do, but finding a doctor in Midgar who would give me an honest answer and not report me to Shinra is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. I'm sure both Angeal and Sephiroth will be willing to participate, too...It helps that I grew up with Angeal and that Sephiroth is our mutual friend, so that part I doubt will be the problem, just the doctors..."

Frowning slightly, Ed asked, "Why did you grow up with Angeal in Banora? Your birth mother only died about eight months ago."

There was a clatter on the other end of the line, a long silence, then a ragged-sounding question, "What do you mean? I was told my mother died in childbirth..."

"No, she—Genesis, would they really have taken you away from your family just because the project you were part of was rejected?"

"...Oh, Goddess...They sent me to live with neglectful adoptive parents (2) who didn't even _want_ a child just because of that...?"

Ed swallowed tightly and asked, "Will you be okay?"

After another few deep breaths, Genesis answered, "Yes. I'm not alone."

"Okay. Good luck finding a doctor who can help you..."

"Ed...could you find out my mother's name and where she lived?"

"The information's not really clear, but she was a Shinra assistant doctor to Hollander called Shalyn Rui (3), and she was moved to a confidential location after the Project was canceled and you were..."

"...Shalyn...Rui...Thank you, Edward. You've done enough about that. Go home and rest, and take a few days away from the lab—you need it. In the meantime, I'll see what I can do on my end. I'll talk with you again when I have some news for you or another week passes, whichever comes first."

"Okay. Take care of yourself in the meantime. Bye."

"I will. Bye."

As they both hung up, Vincent crouched in front of Ed and rested a hand on his shoulder as he asked, "Will you be okay after finding all that out?"

"I'll be fine—I've seen worse reports. And actually, the most horrifying part is what Hojo did to Sephiroth to 'test' him. Also, I'm sure the Jenova root brain needs to be destroyed," Ed answered, looking up at Vincent sadly.

"Why? Isn't she a Cetra?" he asked with a slight frown of confusion.

Shaking his head, the boy said, "Maybe at one time, she was different from what she is now. As she is right now—she was never a Cetra, an Ancient, and the difference was blatantly obvious, just by the way the two are described in the notes and books on either or both. I mean, I'm ten—my mind is—and I can see that the Ancients were symbionts and this thing called Jenova is a parasite. It's like they were all just willfully blind because they wanted to torture people."

"What do you mean? Aren't a symbiont and a parasite the same thing?"

"No. A symbiont is a benign entity which helps to support, sustain, or maintain the good health of whatever it's piggybacking on, doing no harm to the host and leaving the host completely in control of its own self. A parasite is malignant and slowly destroys or erodes its host's physical or mental—or both—health, often leading to debilitation and death of the host. Both kinds happen naturally, though people seem to take notice of the parasite version a lot more easily because it usually is gross and gives people nightmares to watch the collapse of the host at the parasite's 'hands'. Jenova behaves like a parasite, even just looking at the preliminary tests they did on her, but the Ancients were symbiotic specifically to the Planet."

"...So your solution is to destroy Jenova when Genesis and Angeal may need to get transfusions directly from the source?"

"Genesis said he was sure his friend Sephiroth would help, so yes. And even if I had to wait to have those cells transferred to Genesis from Jenova directly, Jenova would still have to be destroyed."

"Why? She's a corpse."

"No, she's not. She's just sleeping at best, and at worst, she's trying to call the cells scattered through the population back to her, and the only thing currently saving them is the distance between her and them."

Vincent was quiet for a few minutes, then lifted his hand and said, "You should go."

"Genesis said I should stay away for a few days, so I'll go hunting with Cloud. I'll see you when I get back." Ed pushed himself up and left quietly, his sources still out.

 **Notes:**

(1) The official data assumes Angeal wasn't deteriorating, but he was also never injured in a way which would have caused a sudden mass deterioration until Zack killed him in Crisis Core, at which point, it was irrelevant. My official story is that he was deteriorating anyway, just much more slowly than Genesis.

(2) Giving Genesis a place to stay was originally just a job for the Rhapsodoses, and while the wikia data says they began to care about Genesis over time, there are scenes throughout Crisis Core which clearly indicate he didn't have a pleasant childhood with them. I don't see it as 'abusive' in the sense of being hit or starved or anything like that, just neglectful—they didn't _care_ about him or pay any attention to what he was doing or how he was when he was young, and didn't encourage him to spend time with them. Angeal's mother, Gillian, was more like his mother than his adoptive parents. So yes, Genesis has some issues in interacting with people (this was pretty obvious to me in Crisis Core).

(3) I am seriously playing with this on more than one level. :P I don't know if it was just me, but I always thought Genesis and Shelke looked way more alike than should have been possible for supposedly unrelated people. As such, he's part of the Rui family (how many people know who else is _also_ his sister? :D ) and I made up the name Shalyn for their mother because her name was never given. Until Shelke is back with them, I won't answer questions about this family because the answers should come in the story.


	18. 18-Unexpected Hand

**A/N:** This is the start of the 'Genesis arc' of the story. My justification: Ed is currently just doing research and sparring with Cloud and Tifa—nothing else is going on out in Nibelheim. On the other hand, with the data Ed found on Genesis and Angeal's condition, there are now events happening in Midgar, so those are the next focus. It needed to be done regardless, otherwise comprehension of the story would go way down.

A guest left a review on this chapter, so I'm going to fill this in at the end of the chapter for anyone who has issues with Sephiroth's, Genesis', and Angeal's ages. If my perspective is completely canon or not, there isn't technically enough data to say, and FFVII has changed/adjusted their own data more than once so...My stance on this topic won't change.

Enjoy! Hopefully I haven't ruined Genesis' personality _too_ much... O.O

Unexpected Hand

Commander Genesis Rhapsodos, currently twenty-two (1) and supposedly fit and healthy young SOLDIER First Class, had been out of sorts into a third day now. He had turned down a training session with Sephiroth and Angeal (2) as he struggled to come to terms with what Edward had told him. At the moment, he was walking through some of the mainly disused warehouses in Sector 2, an area of the Midgar Plate which was oddly sparsely populated. On the basis that it was largely a storage area, it should still have had regular workers during the day, not been more akin to a ghost town. Either way, the ghost town effect suited his current mood, hence the reason he had gravitated to that area.

In one respect, he was shocked and amazed a ten-year-old's mind could come up with what Ed had, but in another, he wanted to pretend he hadn't heard it, something he could feasibly discard because the one who had told him was mentally ten years old. Even though he very much wanted to do the latter, however, he'd heard the intelligence and pain of that young mind as he'd told him, even pleaded with him, to take steps to fix the problem before it couldn't be fixed. Despite having never personally met the young 'Turk Cadet', he was one of the very small circle of people Genesis considered friends, and knew deep down the boy had been honest and truly concerned about him.

Running a hand through his shaggy, red hair as he looked up at the smog-clouded, brown-gray sky above, he wondered where the Hell he'd find a doctor who wouldn't just report right back to Shinra. His eyes followed the traditional trend of those infused with Mako, being largely glowing blue with a rim of green around the pupil—though his rim of green was a bit larger than most SOLDIER's, probably because his eyes had been green before the infusion which had changed them. Either way, it had taken some getting used to in order to accept his new eye color, but it had certain benefits as well, like seeing the detailed patterns in his black pants, top, and boots and in the design of his long, red leather coat. As he dropped his hand, some of his hair fell into his right eye, causing him to absently brush it back out of his eye.

As he was nearing a corner around one warehouse, someone fairly small bolted around the corner—and slammed right into him, unbalancing him and making her yelp in shock and reel back from the impact. On instinct, as he re-balanced himself he reached forward and caught her shoulders, pulling her against him before she fell over backwards. He could feel her panting and tensed as she breathed heavily, obviously in a very emotional state, and Genesis wasn't really sure he would be able to do anything to help even if he asked, so let her just lean against him until she calmed down and pushed away.

When she did, he found himself looking at a fourteen-year-old girl with slender features, blue eyes, and red hair falling past her shoulders in the back. She wore glasses and a plain, knee-length dress in pale yellow which looked like it was getting a bit small on her. The odd thing was that the girl looked quite a bit like him, but he dismissed it as coincidence.

"Are you all right?" he asked her, noting the anger and pain in her eyes.

" _I'm_ fine. Shelke isn't," she replied, glaring.

"...Who is Shelke?" he asked in mild confusion.

"My younger sister. She was kidnapped by Turks about a month ago. I've been trying to find her ever since, but—maybe you've seen her since you're one of Shinra's SOLDIERs," the girl said, still glaring at him—but now it was more like an insect under her boot than the general anger from before. Before he could stop the girl, she hauled off and hit him, connecting to the pressure point at the diaphragm—if he hadn't been infused with Mako, she'd have knocked him out with that blow.

As it was, he swayed on his feet and muttered, "Ouch," before his eyes cleared again and he could see her shocked expression.

"Ouch? That's all you have to say after I—?" she gasped. "How are you still on your feet? Conscious!"

For some reason, that was funny to him, so he began to chuckle, then to laugh, and told her in amusement, " _Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess_. I rather think you should be thankful SOLDIERs are so durable, otherwise you'd have gotten in a lot of trouble for that. As for why, it's the result of being an experimental test subject. Anyway, you said something about your sister. What does she look like? I can at least tell you if I've seen her in the Shinra building." Oddly enough, he felt better than he had in awhile, otherwise he wouldn't have started quoting LOVELESS, even if only one line.

Pausing for a moment in suspicion, the girl reached into one of the side pockets of her dress and pulled out a picture, which she showed to Genesis. And he had to do a double-take, as the girl looked like a female version of him, especially compared to how he'd looked at that age. She was wearing her hair in a bob with the ends curled outward cutely (his hair did the same in its current style, too) while locks against her face curled inward, and her eyes were intense blue even without Mako enhancements, but the collection of slender features she had—how could she look so much like him? Apparently, the girl holding the picture also realized the similarities, as her eyes widened in shock and she stared between him and the picture she held.

"I've never seen a girl who looks like that," Genesis said quietly, still shocked as his gaze moved to the girl's. "How old is this?"

"It was taken a few months before Mom died, so about a year," the girl answered. "She was eight then, nine last month when they..."

"Nine...why in the world would the Turks have been told to take a nine-year-old? She isn't old enough to join any of the programs..." Genesis mused, shaking his head. More importantly, where had the girl disappeared to if she'd been taken to Shinra?

"She..." The girl paused as she tucked the picture back in her pocket, then said, "It's probably because of her ability..."

"Ability?"

"Synaptic Net Dive," the girl whispered, fists clenching in anger. "Instead of just _asking_ her, they..."

Pursing his lips, Genesis realized the problem—he knew what SND was, and it had become a coveted ability. It was also very rare. "I'm sorry, I really haven't seen her." As the girl was about to say something in anger, he held up a hand, stopping her. "I don't know everything there is to know about Shinra. I'm not even sure the President does. There's a good chance there's at least one faction of Shinra hidden from the ones who are in the public view, and I have a real reason for thinking that. Do you want to hear what I have to say?"

For a moment, the girl was quiet, then slowly asked, "Do you really think...there are such factions in Shinra, and you wouldn't know? At your rank, Commander Rhapsodos?"

"Yes. You see, there used to be a group of highly skilled Firsts called Ragnarok, thirteen of them. They would have fallen just below myself, Angeal, and Sephiroth in skill and ability, hence the reason they were placed in that unit. I knew just enough about them and their doings to realize they were angry about something, but the next thing I knew was that they'd gotten in a fight with someone in the Shinra building—and every one of them was found dead the next morning. No one ever found out what had happened, the incident was covered up, and the President proceeded to ignore it entirely.

"When the three of us—Sephiroth, Angeal, and myself—have discussed this privately, Sephiroth said they had filed a complaint with him about a 'faction of SOLDIER' which was doing human experimentation in the extreme. The complaint had vanished from his systems the next day, but he still had the paper copy of it until a few weeks later, when someone obviously broke into his office one night and went through his personal files. Of course, the culprit was never found. The details in the complaint were oddly sparse, but it was incriminating enough. There's a chance Shelke was taken to the same unit which annihilated Ragnarok," Genesis explained. "The problem is finding them, and in finding Shelke in their facilities, because they're obviously well-hidden."

For a long time, the girl just stared at him, then frowned suspiciously and asked, "As great as all that is, what is someone like you doing wandering around here?"

"I'm—feeding my depression, I suppose."

"...Your what? Don't you have a perfect life?"

"Not when I'm dying and Shinra won't tell me the truth of the matter, let alone do something about it."

The girl's jaw dropped open before she asked, "Don't they have the best doctors in the world? Are you even sure there's anything they could do to fix it?"

"Oh, they _could_ fix it," Genesis snorted. "They just _won't_. As it is, I only found out by talking with someone who got their hands on the Project reports concerning me. I've been pondering for the last three days how I'll find a doctor who will both tell me the truth and help me, _without_ reporting it to Shinra."

To his surprise, the girl spun to face away from him, crossing her arms and ducking her head as she thought. Genesis rubbed the back of his head, then dropped his hand and waited for her to finish whatever she was thinking so hard about, gaze turning to the sky again as it occurred to him to wonder how Ed was doing. Even though he'd thought about that on the day the boy—the young man—had told him about the problem, he hadn't considered the impact it had had on him since. More concerned about himself than the one who had gone out of his way to do everything he could to help him—what kind of friend was that?

"Hey," the girl said, so he looked back at her and met her intense gaze. "Give and take. You help me, and I'll help you. But, your life is forfeit if you don't stick to my conditions."

"How can you help me?" he asked in surprise.

"I know a doctor who—doesn't like Shinra. He takes care of the people they won't, and has been teaching me what he knows. If anyone will help you and not tell Shinra, it'll be him. But, there are conditions, and helping me find Shelke is only one of them. I'll only say more if you agree."

First, Genesis blinked. Then, he gave a quirky smile as he said, "I seem to be getting a lot of help from children lately. What's one more?"

Frowning suspiciously, the girl asked again, harshly, "Do you agree?"

"Yes, young lady, I agree."

"My name's Shalua. The doctor isn't part of AVALANCHE, but he works with them, and a lot of AVALANCHE members hide out at his work space. I'd been debating joining AVALANCHE to help find my sister, but maybe I won't have to with your help. And you can't tell anyone about AVALANCHE, the doctor, or where to find him. I won't take you to him unless you agree to pretend you never met the doctor once you leave his place," the girl explained, still glaring suspiciously.

Grinning, Genesis said, "Of course. No one will hear from me about the doctor or the people he helps. And you may as well call me Genesis if we're going to be working together to find your sister."

For the first time since he'd met Shalua, she smiled, and her face lit up. "Okay, this way!" she grinned, reaching out to grab his hand, then fairly dragging him by it down several streets and back alleys.

When she came to the rear door of one building, she rapped on the door with her knuckles in a code of three quick and short, then two rhythmic taps. She then shoved the door open and dragged him inside the warehouse, where Genesis was faced with a large number of people who were glaring at the two of them upon seeing him. There was a large, central room where a number of chairs and tables had been set up, some of them like conference tables. In one corner was a cordoned-off area where a few children were playing with some old toys which were still in decent condition. Along the right-hand wall of the building were several rooms, one set at the far end being washrooms and a literal bathing room, and the rest being smaller rooms which had originally been offices. They were probably the doctor's surgery and examination rooms now.

Shalua dragged him to the room closest to where they'd come in and knocked twice sharply on the door before pushing it open and dragging Genesis inside with her. Only one grizzled, fairly old man was in the room, and he had turned to face them, frowning when he saw the young man.

"Shalua, that man is—" the older man began as Shalua shut the door.

"Commander Genesis Rhapsodos of Shinra's SOLDIER department. I know," the girl cut him off. "But he's someone they won't help, too, and I told him his life was forfeit if he didn't keep his word to keep quiet about this place. Also, he'll help find Shelke, and even already told me something about Shinra and where she might be than even AVALANCHE knew."

At first, the doctor looked uncertain, then sighed and pointed at the seats towards the middle of what was obviously the doctor's office. "Fine, explain to me what the problem is. Assuming you're being honest, not playing spy, I can't turn you away."

Blinking, then snorting in amusement, Genesis asked, "Seriously? Me play spy when I'm so prominent a public figure I'm instantly recognizable?" He moved over to one of the seats and sat. The doctor inclined his head at the words.

"Should I step outside?" the girl asked uncertainly from by the door.

"I guess that depends on how badly you want to know what Shinra won't help me fix," the Commander answered her, making both of them blink in surprise. She nodded and sat beside him, watching intently.

"Very well," the doctor said with a small sigh. "What symptoms do you have?"

"Outwardly, nothing anyone would see. Well, not unless I got a wound and it wouldn't heal, not even with the direct application of Cure 3," Genesis answered. "Well, I had been noticing a slow decline in that regard, in that it's harder and harder for my wounds to heal, whether by my Mako infusions or my magic. It hasn't gotten as bad yet as not healing at all, thankfully, but it's only a matter of time before that starts happening. And it stands to get worse than that, as the problem is with my genetics."

"Genetics?" the older man asked in alarm.

"Someone I know found some old records hidden in a Shinra facility on another continent, records documenting the children used in an experimental process," Genesis explained. The man's and girl's eyes both widened, but they stayed silent. "We were infused with the genes of some sort of entity, under two different processes of infusion, and while one of those prototypes turned out hale and healthy, the other two—were effectively defective. We're essentially rotting from the inside out."

"Oh, ew! And no one will stop that?" Shalua asked, looking sick.

Shaking his head, the younger man informed them, "Hojo and Hollander are very possessive of their work. Hojo won't share his project results with Hollander, and Hollander is too proud to ask for it in the first place. My best friend and I have been caught in the middle of a power struggle, causing us a problem they could fix just by asking Sephiroth to give us a small blood transfusion to kick-start the dying cells."

For a minute, the doctor was silent, then gave a slow nod and said, "I'll need a small blood sample so I can have a look at the genetics you're talking about, and also so I can see the reduced healing time and ability. Have you already determined what is actually causing that functionality in the infusions and the Cure spells?" As he asked the question, he turned to find a small syringe and prep it for use.

"I know the infusion isn't working because its effectiveness is reduced by the constant damage it's trying to heal, so it can't react as quickly or devote as much effort to an actual injury. I would never have noticed it if I hadn't been told what was wrong, and started actually timing my body's recovery rate. I'm not entirely clear on why the spells don't work, as they're clearly there to heal damage and are taking much too long to do so."

The doctor nodded and rolled his chair over close to Genesis' as he motioned at the man's right arm. As Genesis slipped off his coat and began working on his glove and sleeve to bare his arm, the older man said, "Cure functions on the basis of repairing _healthy_ tissue and cells which have been physically or magically cut or otherwise damaged. If you're right and your body is rotting from the inside out—which I think there's a good chance of—it means many of the cells making up the tissue around the wound aren't actually _alive_ , let alone healthy. It can't fix something that's already dead."

"I see. Yes, that makes sense," Genesis agreed as the doctor stuck the needle in his arm and withdrew a blood sample of about half the syringe tube. A sudden thought occurred to the younger man and he asked, "Does that mean Life might work better, since it operates on bringing back dead cells?"

"Does it really?" the doctor asked dryly, wheeling over to a machine next to the computer on the table he used as a desk. He put the syringe tube in the machine, then faced Genesis to examine the small wound where the needle had been. By all rights, a wound so small should have sealed up almost instantly, but it hadn't yet. A quick cast of Cure showed no immediate response, so he tried again and held it until the wound sealed, a little over a minute later.

Genesis was struck by the reality of the doctor's words. Life, like Cure, only worked mainly on healthy cells which had sustained physical or magical damage which wasn't maiming. It also only worked for a certain amount of time after death, which also correlated with how much degradation had happened to the mind and body after death, and the window was surprisingly small. It didn't work on rot, either. There was no spell currently known which could undo something as harmful and disturbing as the very thing he had wrong with him.

"That really took a long time to heal," Shalua frowned, still looking disturbed.

"It did," the doctor agreed. "The question is, will someone as exalted as Sephiroth deign to help you, and to keep quiet about this place if he does?"

Genesis' lips quirked a bit as he said, "Doctor, the thing I'd been _least_ worried about this whole time was getting one of my two best friends' help, and if he knows this is the only way, he won't say anything. I was more worried I'd never find a doctor I could trust who wouldn't just report back to Shinra, preventing me from being able to get this fixed."

At first, the doctor blinked a few times, then nodded. "If you're sure, it's not a difficult process to arrange a transfusion, but I'll need to track the results to see if the effect is indeed positive. Also, the other person who you fear is degenerating, will he be willing to let me test his blood and perform the same transfusion on him if the results are the same? And, as always, will _he_ keep quiet about this place?"

"He will. I grew up with him, and his sense of honor is to the people he cares about _before_ it is to Shinra. If my life and his own are on the line, he'll keep quiet," the younger man stated. Just like with Sephiroth, he had no doubt of his friends' willingness to believe him, to help him, and to help themselves. At least, the chances were high.

The machine on the table beeped and began scrolling out sheets of paper, the first two quickly and the second two slowly. It only took a moment for the doctor to grab the first two and begin examining them, almost immediately frowning in puzzled concern as he saw what was showing on the results. "This is odd..."

"What is?"

"You literally have genes from some kind of foreign entity in your body, and this shows...two female parents and a male—it's not a wonder there's problems!"

"Well, Sephiroth and Angeal have them, too, but the only ones anything is wrong with are myself and Angeal. The only difference is in how we were infused, so you tell me. But how could two women be in my genetic makeup?"

"What is the difference besides the additional 'parent' you seem to have? That would probably answer both," the doctor said.

Genesis shook his head. "The one who informed me only said the process was different, not _how_ it was different. He was more concerned about the negative results of the difference at the time."

"Very well," the doctor sighed. "Do you think you'll be able to return in the evening the day after tomorrow, hopefully with Angeal or Sephiroth, or both? Angeal is honestly my priority so I have time to run a test on his blood and confirm what I'm seeing in yours. Outside the alien genetics in you, your body is healthy, so I'm not surprised it took this long to show, but the die-off could still become critical. Especially if something triggers a sudden mass dying-off."

"...I see. I can drag Angeal here with me if it's after eight in the evening, and maybe Sephiroth as well, but not any earlier. And that's assuming neither winds up on a mission at that time," the red haired man offered.

"Good enough. Shalua will find you around eight in two days. Head out while I sort the results of the test out."

Genesis rose and left the room, and heard the doctor call Shalua back, so also let himself out of the warehouse to head back to the Shinra building.

 **Notes:**

(1) Genesis' age is never actually stated and is really, really hard to work out, so I'm going with twenty-two at this point in time, given that he had to have been in his mother's womb during the narrow window of years the Jenova Project was going on for, and he similarly has to be younger (by at least a month) than Angeal and older than Sephiroth. At least, that's how I assessed the process. The math isn't quite right, but with no specific ages or birth dates, it leaves playing room.

 **If you feel you need more information:** Apparently the Crisis Core handbook cites all three men as 25 when Crisis Core happens, and supposedly Genesis came first.

There are multiple issues with saying that, including data from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII which references the assortment of incidences over the timeframe Crisis Core takes place in. The first and second most obvious issues with saying all three are 25 are that the game covers AT LEAST seven years of time, and that Sephiroth is actually cited to be 20 in 0000 in Compilation data (when Crisis Core starts) and 27 in FFVII (which starts where Crisis Core ends). Genesis and Angeal are also cited to be older than Sephiroth, and the difference is a couple years, but no exact ages or comparative dates are listed, outside the fact that there was a 5-year span they could have been born in, which Sephiroth was born at the tail end of.

As far as me making Angeal older, there's no actual reference to whether Genesis or Angeal was physically older in age, but since Gillian was infused with the Jenova genes which passed on to Angeal, it would seem logical to me that she was already pregnant (to verify that the genes would pass on), and that her genes would then have been transferred to Genesis while he was still in the womb of his birth mother (otherwise regular SOLDIERs would show his same traits). Granted, Genesis' mother could have been pregnant with him for longer than Angeal's was with him, but that's not a big enough point to concern myself with, and I prefer the 'older brother Angeal' dynamic.

(2) This would have been the training session which triggered his degeneration in the original work, so here's the first actual reference there is to 'when' this is taking place.


	19. 19-Doubts Laid to Rest

**A/N:** Be aware that any known floors of the Shinra Building I kept as is, but started filling in the contents of floors which weren't noted as having anything in particular in them. The floors where the SOLDIERs and Turks have their rooms are included in the floors I'm filling in, and I added a landing pad to the floor where the security checkpoint is, since I know there is one and it doesn't actually make sense for it to be anywhere else. Obviously, the contents of the rooms are also by my design unless a specific room was given a description somewhere, which the vast majority weren't.

Also, I realized I needed a note on the Zack/Angeal situation. The implied was that Zack only reached Second Class because Angeal was already mentoring him for some time while he was a Third Class (he'd have already turned up in the story by now, at least by Angeal talking about him, if I was basing it on that). This version of the story has it more in the context that Angeal takes a fair bit of time to mentor all the Thirds and new Seconds because he wants them to succeed, but he didn't personally 'know' Zack, mostly only knew his reputation. It can safely be assumed that the training things he (or the others) keeps mentioning he's going to sometimes include Zack, but isn't mentoring him specifically right now, hence why Zack hasn't been part of the story yet. Of course, that also means I have more faith in Zack's personal skills and dedication than the FFVII writers. :P As such, this is happening _before_ Angeal took Zack as a protegee, and it takes a bit to happen due to everything else going on.

Doubts Laid to Rest

As Genesis walked through one of the lobbies spread throughout the building to act as rest and waiting rooms for employees and clients, he happened to turn his head and see a black cat with a white belly who wore a gold crown and a red cape. With a slight chuckle and a sudden idea, he quietly walked up behind the cat as it stood peering around the side of a plant pot towards a group of executives at one coffee table nearby. He plucked the cat from its hiding place, making it yelp in surprise, then pulled it against him and began petting the back of its head. At first, the cat fought, then realized it wasn't being attacked by a stranger, so calmed and went almost completely still.

"Sorry if you were 'working' Cait Sith, but I have something more urgent to talk with you about," he whispered to the cat as he petted it and continued on his way to the SOLDIER First Class residences, which were on a higher floor. He felt a nod, so asked, "Is Reeve listening right now?" When he got another nod, he said, "Tell him to stay put."

"He heard ya, laddy. An' he says 'Be careful what ye tell me, or ye may be dead.' Ye may be strong, Genesis, but ye still got nothin' on all o' Shinra," Cait Sith replied, letting the young man carry him to Genesis' apartment on the fifty-fifth floor.

Genesis chuckled at the robotic cat's warning and answered, "As things stand, I'll be dead soon, anyway." After his whispered words, Cait Sith—and apparently Reeve as well—fell silent, so he made the rest of the trip to his own home for the last few years in silence, smiling as he petted Cait Sith. To his surprise, the robotic cat started purring on the way, producing a chuckle from him and from a few of the other people he passed in the halls.

Finally, in his own apartment, he flipped the lights in the living room on and set the cat down on the red suede couch across from his favorite chair. As much as everyone would have expected his living space to be largely red and black by the way he dressed, it wasn't, and the red couch and black, glass-topped coffee table were the only items in the room which were in those colors. His favorite chair was green plush so soft you sank right into it, and most of the furniture was in varying colors of wood grain—even the coffee table was in a wood grain made of a black wood called ebony. There was an end table in red-hued wood which looked auburn, the TV and stereo stand was in a glowing, silvery wood, another end table was medium brown, and he hand another plush chair in the room which was blue and gold.

The mixed colors continued into the kitchen and dining room area, where his pride and joy was a table made of purple wood—truly purple wood (1), not painted or stained. It could only seat four comfortably, so he only kept four mismatched chairs for it, all of them wooden in colors ranging from yellow to dark brown to one which almost looked orange, and another which was pale brown. In that whole central space, the non-carpeted floor was tile with criss-crossing patterns in green and medium brown on a pale brown background, while the carpeted floor of the living room was plain cream—it was the same carpet and tile the room had come with. The walls were off-white in a color towards the browns, and he had a few pictures and posters almost all featuring LOVELESS, his favorite book, poem, and play. One was a landscape of Banora, where he'd grown up, though.

"Ye like a riot o' color, don't ye, laddy?" Cait Sith asked in a dry tone as Genesis got himself an energy drink from his fridge.

As he sat down, the young man replied, "I'd be bored if it was too uniform."

"Ya..." the cat chuckled. "Only ye, Genesis, only ye. So, what did ye want with Reeve an' me?"

"I met a girl earlier today who told me she was looking for her sister, who had been kidnapped by the Turks," Genesis said, gazing evenly at the cat's permanently slitted eyes. "The girl is called Shelke and has the SND ability—and I'm sure she never made it to any of the openly-known departments of Shinra. She's nine currently, and has red hair and blue eyes. That should be enough for you to find at least records of her pre-kidnapping, as that happened only about a month ago."

There was a long silence as the cat's tail waved behind it, then after almost ten minutes, Cait Sith said, "Reeve says he found her records. What do ye want te do?"

"Find her," the young man answered calmly. "Find what department in Shinra has her, where they're hidden, and get her the Hell out of there and back to her sister."

After a pause, the cat said, "Ye'll be killed if ye do that."

"Yes. Maybe. It depends on a lot of things, but it doesn't change the fact that I want to help reunite the sisters. Also, I have one chance to stay alive for much longer, and anything could go wrong to prevent my one chance. I'm rotting from the inside out, Reeve. If I can't do something to help those girls before I go, I'll never be able to be the hero I always wanted to be, not even to _one_ person."

When the reply came, Cait Sith's mouth stayed closed and the voice coming over the microphone implanted in the cat's cranial cavity was Reeve's deeper, gentle, and concerned voice. "Genesis, are you really—dying? And even if you are, is it worth cutting your time even shorter to help people you don't know?"

Crossing his arms, Genesis answered, "I'm dying, yes. That's the hardest pill I've ever had to swallow. If things go well from here, maybe I won't, but...Is it worth saving Shelke and returning her to her sister? Yes. Even if I die in the process, even if I wouldn't have died. Don't think I haven't thought about this, Reeve. I'm only asking you to find out as much as you can without getting hurt or killed in the process, and the rest is my lookout, my choice to make, and my price to pay."

There was a pause, then Reeve sighed and said, "Very well, but I'm going to have to hack Public Security Maintenance and the President's personal files. I may not even be able to find out anything, but I may be able to give myself more time if I do things right. I can't promise any specific time to have results, but at least I have a starting place. What made you think there's a hidden branch of Shinra involved?"

"The incident with Ragnarok."

"Yes, I can see what you mean. They got into a fight with someone powerful, and it wasn't one another. I'll get in touch again when I have word to give to you."

"Thank you, Reeve. And please keep my condition to yourself. I don't want to be an experimental pawn if I can at all help it."

"I understand. I'll keep quiet about it. Just...take care of yourself."

"I will—as much as I can as a SOLDIER, anyway—and you stay safe while you're digging. If you feel you're in danger, drop it and let me know you can't do any more."

"I'm enough of a coward to do that anyway."

At the amusement in Reeve's voice, Genesis chuckled, then said, "Okay, you're free to go, Cait Sith. Thanks again, Reeve."

"Right-o, laddy!" Cait Sith happily replied, jumping from the couch and trotting out the door—but a hand kept the door from closing entirely, cutting off the sigh of relief the red haired young man had been about to heave.

"Genesis, what were you doing with Cait Sith?" Angeal asked in bemusement as he stepped into the open door. Despite his bemused expression, his eyes clearly showed concern, and more as he stepped inside and shut the door. The man was both more muscular and a few inches taller than Genesis, and tended to wear the black First Class SOLDIER uniform. With his darker complexion and stronger features, the uniform looked ideal on him, and his black hair brushed back from his face and falling just to the shoulder was a nice compliment to it all. His eyes also had the Mako glow, but as they had previously been gray-blue, the rim around his pupils was teal rather than straight green and made his eyes look much more blue than the average SOLDIERs'.

"Asking him to search the population registry records for a missing girl I found out about earlier today," Genesis answered, telling the truth with a twist which he hoped would save Reeve's life later on if he managed to dig a little too deeply.

"Really? Well, I guess he's the best one to ask about that," Angeal agreed, then fell silent for a minute. Finally, he stepped over to the blue and silver chair beside Genesis' green one and sat, gazing at his friend in concern. "Genesis, please stop avoiding me and tell me what's been bothering you the last few days. I can't help you if you won't talk to me."

The words made Genesis chuckle, but even to him the sound was sad. But he had to stop thinking that way—he _knew_ Sephiroth would help, and he now had a doctor who would, too, so there was a good chance he could be saved. The worry about it didn't help because he couldn't make that fear go away, no matter how well he hid it, and so much could still go so wrong. Then, there was the fact that Angeal was probably not going to live much longer, either, which made his sad chuckle end in a sigh.

"When was the last time you got hurt and tried to Cure yourself because the wound wasn't healing? And how long did it take to heal you when you did?" Genesis asked quietly at last. Well, since he had the opportunity, he may as well take it, but part of him worried Angeal wouldn't take him seriously. Or not seriously enough.

Angeal blinked, then blinked again and leaned forward to peer worriedly at the man in the chair beside his. Of the two, Genesis was younger, but only by about two months, so they had literally grown up together and knew each other well. The older man knew his friends' insecurities came at the hands and treatment of his adoptive parents, and both men had wondered as children why the Rhapsodos' had adopted Genesis when it was clear they didn't want a child. While Genesis could be dramatic, he didn't often divert a question, so the fact that he was asking about Angeal's reaction to the Cure spell was a legitimate concern for him, as well as an indication as to what was bothering the younger of the two.

As such, he said, "I never thought about it before. Give me a minute?" When Genesis nodded, Angeal closed his eyes and seriously considered what had been happening when he'd received injuries for the last year. It took him a few minutes, but then he opened his eyes in surprise and turned to his friend again, saying, "It's not a huge difference and happened so gradually I didn't realize it—but my enhancements haven't been repairing minor damage with the speed and efficiency they should be. When I resorted to the Cure spell to compensate, over time it's been taking longer to close the wounds. The last time I used it, I had to hold the spell for about ten seconds to heal a cut not much bigger than a paper cut."

Genesis blew out a deep breath and said, "Well, you're in better shape than me, but the process is happening to you, too. He was right."

"What process? What did Hollander say about us?" Angeal asked in alarm, his worry increasing when the red head looked faintly amused.

"It's not Hollander who told me. It wasn't anyone currently in Shinra, actually," the younger of the two answered, making the older blink and sit back again. "But I trust his word, and I went to check it—I just came back from said check. Both our bodies are rotting from the inside out, and if things are allowed to continue, we'll die. It sounds like you have a lot more time than I do, since it now takes over a minute of maintaining Cure to heal the pin-prick of a needle in my arm. If the trend holds true, we—need small blood infusions from Sephiroth to kick-start the genes causing the problem so they stop dying off and return us to our normal states."

"Over a minute?" Angeal asked in alarm. "You should take extended leave and find someplace safe to enjoy your time so—"

"Angeal!" Genesis cut him off loudly with a small laugh. "That won't help me. I just...I know Sephiroth will help us out with transfusions, but I'm still afraid to ask him, that...I don't know...he'll think I'm weak or something..."

Unable to help himself, Angeal held his hand to his head and rubbed his eyes for a minute, then rose and reached down to grip Genesis' wrist. It was easy for him to haul the startled man to his feet and pull him to the door, giving the red haired man an interesting sensation of deja vu from when Shalua had done the same thing to him. As Angeal pulled him from his apartment and down the hall to Sephiroth's, Genesis actively tried to pull his hand back, but Angeal didn't let it go.

The larger man knocked loudly on their third friend's door, and it was opened soon after—only for Sephiroth to gaze at the two with faintly concerned, slit-pupilled, glowing, green eyes. The silver haired man was still fully dressed in his long, black coat, black pants, and black gloves, including the metal shoulder pad, showing that he expected to be going out again that day. With his hair falling past his hips in length, he'd pulled it into a loose ponytail, so both Genesis and Angeal knew he'd been reading just before answering the door.

"Is everything all right?" Sephiroth asked.

"Let's step inside so Genesis can explain," Angeal said, and Sephiroth stood aside to let them in.

His place in comparison to Genesis' was almost clinical, with mainly shades of gray for furniture, offset by the same browns and greens as in Genesis' floors and walls. The only signs of human life were the three landscape images on the living room walls, one of mountains, one of the woods, and one—the largest—of the ocean, and the blues, greens, purples, and reds of the throw pillows on the living room chairs and couches and the cushions on the kitchen chairs. On the coffee table was a book sitting open, one of the very few books the man read just for enjoyment, something he didn't do often.

The three sat in Sephiroth's living room, which had two couches opposite the coffee table from each other and two chairs at the head and foot of said table. It was only Angeal forcing Genesis down on the couch nearest the door which caused him to sit there while Sephiroth sat in the chair also nearest the door—Genesis would have preferred the other chair. When Angeal sat across from Genesis, he gave the red haired man an encouraging nod, which resulted in a sigh and a faintly sad smile.

It took him only a few minutes to explain to the man who was about two years younger than him what he'd told Angeal, finishing up by nervously asking if Sephiroth would be willing to help them.

A silence fell as Sephiroth absorbed the new information, then asked slowly, "And you trust this mysterious person's word enough to believe I can do that for you?"

"Yes," Genesis answered, nerves run raw from tension and stress. "It sounds strange, but he—I haven't seen or heard anything from him which would lead me to think he'd misunderstand the data or lie about it. He actually seems more worried about getting that kind of result from me than I've gotten from him, and more than once he's shown his knowledge, ability, and skill. If there was one scientist you ever respected, place him in the same category, because that's the kind of skill and knowledge he has. I would—"

"Genesis," Sephiroth cut him off, lifting a hand in a 'halt' position and causing the red haired man to press his lips together tightly. "You are babbling." The silver haired man rose and moved over to kneel in front of his older friend, meeting his gaze evenly. "If you really believe a transfusion from me will help both of you, I will give it, freely and willingly. You are my friends—my only friends. I am not willing to risk losing your friendship, your lives, if there is something I can do to stop it. My only questions now are when and where do we do this?" (2)

First, the older man blinked, then he gave Sephiroth a small smile. "Thank you," he almost whispered, realizing his fears about Sephiroth were unfounded. "We can go back the day after tomorrow after eight in the evening, but I can't say any more now. And obviously, anything we see and hear there has to be kept quiet or we'll lose that out, too." (3)

Both blinked, but gave agreement to the last sentiment, knowing Genesis was right about that—doctors willing to operate outside Shinra's purview were few and far between, so they didn't really want to risk losing the only one they knew about.

"We're going after my usual inspection of the Seconds at their closing training, then," Angeal commented with a nod. His gaze then met Genesis' and he asked, "So, was the result as bad as you'd managed to convince yourself it would be?"

Opening his mouth to retort, then shutting it again as he saw Angeal's understanding and Sephiroth's bemusement, he had to admit, "Well...no. I was...out of sorts and thought of everything that could go wrong. There's a lot less now, assuming no one finds out about our plans until it's done."

The other two nodded and Sephiroth clapped Genesis on the shoulder as he rose. "Since the two of you are here now, would you care to stay for supper? I had already decided I did not want cafeteria food today."

"That would be great, thanks," Angeal agreed with a smile.

"Count me in!" Genesis added, feeling a lot better—and spontaneously quoting one of his favorite parts of LOVELESS as a result. " _My friend, your desire/Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess_!"

The words made Angeal and Sephiroth chuckle as the silver haired man went to the kitchen to cook. Angeal quickly joined him while they both made Genesis sit at the table and wait patiently for the meal to be done—he was dangerous in a kitchen. The rest of the day was much nicer for them now that they had a plan.

CA

Two days later, at about eight in the evening, Genesis led Sephiroth and Angeal into the Sector 2 warehouse district, heading in the direction he remembered the doctor's hideout being. On the way there, a familiar voice said dryly, "You've got a really good memory, you know, Genesis?"

Turning to face her where she leaned against a warehouse wall they'd just passed, Genesis said dryly, "Shalua. It's rather a requirement of the job, you know."

She trotted over to him, gazing suspiciously at Sephiroth and Angeal for a moment before asking, "Have you found anything about Shelke yet?"

"No, but I have someone looking into some records to see if he can find any trace, and he'll let me know if he either finds something or exhausts all his options," he told her. "Don't worry—we're making progress, even if it's slow."

"Okay," she agreed, pouting a bit as she turned and led the way to their destination. "Does that mean you remember the knock from the last time you were here, too?"

Angeal and Sephiroth traded looks as they followed Genesis, who was already following the girl.

"Yes, but I wasn't aware that was important," he blinked at the girl.

"It is. Actually, everyone would bolt if you didn't knock in the most recent or last-used code, so since you'll never know the most recent one, you might have problems without me," she told him. "The doctor said he has more news for you—for us, actually. He hasn't told me yet, which is really irritating."

"Good or bad?" Genesis asked.

Shalua shrugged and answered, "He seemed almost amused by it, I guess, so probably good."

"Then I count it as a boon."

She snorted but didn't answer, and they soon reached the door needed, which she knocked on with four slow knocks and two quick at the end, then opened. Like the first time, she led the way in past some glaring people—fewer than the previous time, and there were no kids in the play area—and to one of the doors on the right hand side of the room. Rather than the first door, however, she led them to the third, pushing it open and letting them in to a room with three chairs, two cots, and a two-way I.V. machine, closing the door behind them.

"Wait here, I'll tell the doctor you made it. And don't leave the room, because those AVALANCHE guys will jump you if you do, and I'd rather not see any dead bodies laying around, no matter whose they are," Shalua informed them, then slipped back out, the door closed behind her.

"Genesis, who is that girl?" Sephiroth asked dryly. "And can we really leave AVALANCHE alone when they're a registered threat in Shinra's database, no matter how small of one they currently are?"

"About AVALANCHE, I'm sure if they _really are_ a threat, we'll get another chance at them, or we'll be able to track them to a place _away_ from here to get to them—time permitting, of course. So, here, we don't know anything about them. Anyway, she's the one who introduced me to a doctor who would actually do something about the state of mine and Angeal's bodies," Genesis answered. "She's got a damn hard punch and can target pressure points, too."

"Should I ask how you know that?" Sephiroth asked in mild amusement.

"I can guess she hit him," Angeal quipped.

"Yes. And almost died of shock when I didn't faint after she hit one of my pressure points," the red haired man smiled in amusement of his own.

"She's sure got spunk," the black haired man smiled.

The door opened right then, admitting the doctor and Shalua, both of whom carried some of the wires and needles for the transfusion. Once the door was closed again, the doctor asked, "Do you want the news first or the transfusion first?"

"Well, it's not actually bad news from what Shalua said, so maybe that first," Genesis offered, glancing at the girl, whose gaze was full of curiosity.

"Put your load down, Shalua," the doctor told her, then looked at Genesis as she set her load down on one of the cots. "Do you know the name of your birth mother?"

Blinking, the young man said, "The one who told me about my condition said her name was Shalyn Rui."

"That's my mom's name!" Shalua gasped, hands going limp as the two stared at each other, then faced the doctor. It had obviously been good advice to tell Shalua to put everything down, first. Sephiroth and Angeal just stared at the three of them.

The man nodded and said, "I took a sample of Shalua's blood the same night you were in here after seeing the likeness in your looks. You're siblings, despite the other genes introduced to your body, Commander."

 **Notes:**

(1) Yes, purple wood actually exists—it's a South American wood called amaranth. It starts out pale or medium brown and turns varying shades of purple with UV exposure after being cut. There are some sources online which show pictures of it.

(2) From what I've read and seen of the pre-Nibelheim destruction Sephiroth, he was neither insane nor uncaring, he just didn't openly show his emotions. I would see him as the sort to only show his feelings to someone he trusts, and only Genesis and Angeal qualify—generally, their rivalry is friendly, not serious. Genesis just gets fed up sometimes with always being 'second best' no matter how hard he works.

(3) Take note of how Genesis conveniently _doesn't_ say anything about Ed or where he is, and leaves out a lot of data about the doctor's location. They can't tell something they don't know, after all.


	20. 20-Home and Family

Home and Family

As Genesis lay on one of the cots and waited for the transfusion from Sephiroth to finish, he held a hand over his eyes and chuckled. "I have two younger sisters..." he murmured for the tenth time since the doctor's announcement. It had been almost half an hour since then, as the first thing the doctor had done was take a sample of Angeal's blood to see if it showed the same signs. It did, just to a lesser degree, so the transfusion for both was a go-ahead.

Sephiroth, laying on the other cot, sighed and asked, "Do you think you could stop repeating yourself like a broken record?"

From his chair beside a stunned-silent Shalua, Angeal commented, "I don't think you'd be much better in such a situation, Sephiroth."

The doctor halted the transfusion passing through the wires and the I.V. and told the two men in the beds, "Okay, stay laying down, General. Commander, you're fine to get up as soon as I remove the needle from your arm. I'll take a sample to test later tonight, so don't run off right away. In fact, perhaps you and Shalua should just find a quiet corner to talk in while I'm working with Commander Hewley and the General."

While the man worked on disconnecting the needle and healing the wound it left, Genesis said, "If Shalua has concerns about talking in front of Angeal and Sephiroth, we'll go somewhere she's comfortable. Otherwise, we can stay here."

"There's nowhere more private than here, even with the doctor and your friends here," Shalua answered, voice oddly soft. "But..."

"But what?" Genesis asked as the healing finished and he could sit up. She stayed silent as he sat in the chair on the other side of her and Angeal got up to lay down on the cot. The doctor was hooking the black haired man up to the I.V. as the red haired one prompted her, "Shalua, what thought did you have?"

"Um, just...the name you were born with...Was it really Genesis, or did Mom name you something else before you were called that?" the girl asked.

"Does it matter that much?" Angeal asked as the transfusion to him began.

"What are you talking about? Of course it is!" Shalua stated angrily.

"No matter what his name was, or is, it does not make you any less siblings, does it?" Sephiroth asked, and she froze.

"That's true," Genesis agreed. "But for me, it's more like...What kind of life would I have had if I'd been raised by my real mother? Maybe I'd never have joined SOLDIER if I'd grown up with my mother and sisters, or maybe I still would have and our friendships would be completely different. I don't know that it makes much tangible difference in that sense because those are all 'what ifs' which can never happen now, but it would tell me something about my mother. Was I wanted, or did she willingly give me up, you know? And what about our father, for that matter?"

"She wouldn't have willingly. I never understood why she was so sick all the time (1)," Shalua told them, eyes seeing something far away. "Pictures from when she was younger showed her strong and happy and—healthy, not like I knew her. When she died, it was really just from wasting away. She was an amazing, loving mother, but...it was like she just pined away and lost the will to live. If she'd been suffering over how she lost you, it would make a lot more sense. Still way too sad, but it would make sense." The last two sentences she directed at Genesis specifically. "I actually never met our father, either, I just know Shelke and I have the same father (2), and so do you."

Sephiroth and Angeal traded looks as Genesis rested a hand on the girl's (his sister's!) shoulder and said, "I want to see the home you grew up in."

Shalua seemed surprised, but nodded. "I'm not sure I can go back there, not when I'll have to remember Mom dying and Shelke being kidnapped, but I can tell you where to find it and where I hid the key to the door. I hadn't planned on going back yet unless I had Shelke back, but the Mayor promised to keep it undisturbed for at least a year, and it's only been a month. Nothing about it should be different than the way I left it."

"That's fine. I think it may be better for me to go alone, anyway. It's my own journey, like yours brought you here," the young man—her brother—told her.

At that point, the doctor stopped the transfusion to Angeal and said, "Sorry to interrupt, but the transfusions are done. I need you to stay nearby for at least an hour and to come back in about a week so I can make sure the transfusion is taking hold and the damage is repairing. If the results are positive, I'll give you one more date to come back to me, but otherwise, I'll grab a drink for the General and you four can stay here and talk until the hour's up." He removed the needles from the two men and healed Angeal while Sephiroth's wound closed up immediately, then left the room. A couple minutes later, he was back with a juice can for Sephiroth, then left again.

After Shalua gave Genesis the home address (3) and the location of the key she hid, the four sat around talking about general things, and the girl seemed to be frequently surprised by the opinions Sephiroth and Angeal were voicing. The hour passed quickly, and the blood samples were taken from Genesis and Angeal, the results already showing some minor improvement in their conditions. With that news, they headed out to return to the Shinra building, Genesis promising to return in a few days after he'd visited the Rui family home.

CA

Two days later, he dialed the phone number he had for Edward, and found the boy asking, "Well, have you found a doctor yet?"

Chuckling, Genesis answered, "Yes, I actually did. I also found out I have two sisters, though one was kidnapped not long ago and vanished. That is, she was supposedly kidnapped by the Turks, but she's not with any of the current known departments. Do you know any more about Shalyn Rui or a Shalua or Shelke Rui? Shelke has an ability called Synaptic Net Dive, or SND."

"Um..." the boy on the other end began, and Genesis could hear him shuffling some papers around. "Nothing specific, but there was a note in one file about continued Mako enhancement experiments that said they were looking for someone with SND to test. There's supposed to be a 'Reactor 0' in Midgar where they're doing the experiments in a group called Deepground, but there's no indication about anything else. Well, except that the entrance to both the Reactor and the Deepground facilities is in the Shinra building. I think even Hojo doesn't know anything about it even though they're using his hypotheses and theories to experiment on those people."

"What department is Deepground part of?" the red haired man frowned as he gazed down at his copy of LOVELESS, sitting on the table in front of him.

"They're supposed to be a faction of SOLDIER. At least, that's what the files say, but how they could be effective if no one but the President and the people locked up in it even know about them, I have no idea."

"Well, it's more than I had to start with, at any rate. But you can't confirm that Shelke is with them?"

"No, sorry. It looks like someone comes here about three or four times a year to add to the records and notes, but if their last visit was before Shelke was taken, any record wouldn't have been here. Actually, that's not really true, because there's no records of anyone who is part of Deepground here. It's like they just come out of nowhere, and some were probably born there, not unlike how you, Angeal, and Sephiroth were experimented on before you were even born."

"Yes, that's a problem. People who vanished and whose existences aren't..." Genesis then paused as he recalled something Veld had said. "Edward...there's no record of you anywhere on the Planet before you made yourself unintentionally known to the Turks, and your mental and physical abilities are—intensive. Do you think you were one of Deepground's...?"

"Oh for—!" the boy growled, muttering profanities under his breath. After a minute, he scowled into the phone as he said, "No, I wasn't experimented on. Everything I have is natural and comes from hard training or my father's genetics, since I know he was like me mentally. I know exactly how and where I learned to fight and climb canyon walls and all that, even with six years of my memories missing. Are people here really so stupid and weak that the only way someone can truly be skilled at something is if they were some kind of experiment? I mean, you're not the first one to ask me that recently."

Genesis was legitimately taken aback by the whole statement, but he had to admit the boy had a point. On the other hand, everyone but the Turks had been enhanced or experimented on to have their skills—key phrase being 'everyone but the Turks'. In other words, there _were_ normal people who had such skills, and they invariably found themselves with one particular group...except Shelke.

Remembering what the doctor had asked about the difference in the method of how Angeal and he had gotten the genes, Genesis said, "I'm glad to know you never had to go through that. Going back to the experiments done on Sephiroth, Angeal, and I, what was the actual difference between us to have such different—and deadly—results?"

"The entity's cells were infused straight into Sephiroth while he was in the womb—it was something called 'stem cell infusion'. In yours and Angeal's cases, the doctor the project was named for, Gillian Hewley, was infused with the cells. The mixed cells were taken and injected into Shalyn Rui's unborn baby—you—while Gillian was pregnant with her son, causing the mixed cells in her to transfer to him automatically—Angeal. His makeup was more stable because it was his own mother and happened naturally, but both of you were degenerating. There was an additional problem, too, because as far as I can tell, Sephiroth was given live cells, not the dead ones you and Angeal have—basically, the dead cells put into you started killing your own live cells. That's why Sephiroth's live cells should kick-start your dead ones into regenerating—something even the dead cells _can_ do."

"I guess the fact that there were already dead cells in our bodies would explain a lot of the degeneration by itself," Genesis admitted tiredly as he assessed what the boy had just told him. Gillian Hewley had been like a mother to him growing up, more than his adoptive mother had been, so to hear that she had been part and parcel of taking him away from his own mother, he was shocked and hurt. "Do you think she knew I was Shalyn's son? Gillian, I mean."

"Dunno. They were working on the project together, so even if she didn't know for sure, she probably suspected. I think part of what made your genes so unstable as well was the fact that some of her genes had been put in you, even though you should have biologically been entirely Shalyn's and her—um...not really husband since they weren't married...lover's, I guess—children weren't supposed to biologically have more than one mother and one father."

Genesis went cross-eyed as he realized the leap of logic the boy had made, then gave a small chuckle and admitted, "I guess you have a point in that. If you found the file on Sephiroth, did you find out his family name? We've never heard one."

"You either?" Edward asked in wry amusement. "Well, that's where things get touchy, because he could be Hojo's, or he could be someone else's."

"Ew...Hojo's kid? That's creepy. But seriously, Ed, he's obviously _someone's_ , so if he's not Hojo's, he'd _have_ to be someone else's!" At the teasing, Ed made an interesting indignant squawk rather like a chocobo's sound to express a similar emotion, and Genesis had to chuckle.

"No, there's a specific other person who Sephiroth's mother fell in love with around the time all that experiment was going on, and he might be the father. I can't find any information on who, though, just that Hojo was really pissed about it and called Dr. Lucrecia Crescent a whore in his writings after that time. The only thing I can be sure of is that it was a Shinra employee who was assigned here in the late seventies and early eighties, and it wasn't one of the other doctors. That doesn't leave a lot of people, just the research assistants and the Turks, since SOLDIER wasn't really functional at that time."

"Wait, I thought his mother's name was Jenova!" Genesis blinked.

"If Jenova is, then she's yours and Angeal's mother, too, because 'Jenova' is the name of the entity whose cells all of you were infused with," Ed answered in a darkly dry tone as Genesis' jaw fell open. "No, she's not his mother, just a parasite Hojo wants to experiment with, the sadist. Lucrecia Crescent is his mother, just like yours is Shalyn Rui and Angeal's is Gillian Hewley."

"Oh...You sure have been finding out a lot of information..." the red haired man muttered in a daze, staring out his window at the smog. It was mind-boggling how much the boy understood from books and reports.

After a pause, the boy asked, "Do you know yet if you'll be okay?"

A small smile formed on the man's lips as he assured Ed, "Yes. The preliminary tests after the infusion already showed improvement, so you had it right. I'll know in about a week, though, if the improvement has been continuing as it should."

"Okay, good!" the boy said in a relieved tone. "Angeal too?"

"Yes. We all went at the same time."

"Then that's the only really important stuff. Was there anything else, or can I go back to my reading?"

Chuckling, Genesis said, "That's all, and you can go back to your reading. Bye."

"Bye!" the boy answered, sounding much more cheerful as he hung up.

It only took a minute for Genesis to think he should get in touch with Reeve with the Deepground data, so went for a walk to find Cait Sith. When he found the cat, he whispered to it the data he had on Deepground, then released the cat again, only for Cait Sith to begin following him around—and to keep following him for the rest of the day as he randomly petted the cat in his free time.

CA

The next day, the sun was shining brightly down on the town as Genesis walked into it and quickly located the address Shalua had given him. The townspeople were watching him with cautious suspicion, but were keeping their distance, so he went to the front door of the house and tested the knob. It was still locked, so the man looked for the broken board in the front porch and pulled it up enough to reach the key under it, then went back to the door and used the key to unlock it, letting it swing open to reveal a hall. At that point, he had to pause, feeling nervous about stepping into this home, the home which could have been his if only he hadn't been an experimental subject.

Finally, he drew in a deep breath and stepped inside, the key clutched in a death grip in his hand. There was nothing much in the hall, just a soft, white and green wallpaper above wood paneled half-walls, and from the hall was a set of stairs up, a space like a living room to the right, and a sitting room similar to a den to the left. The back of the house had a kitchen and dining room, the kitchen (and laundry room) behind the sitting room and the dining room behind the living room. Under the stairs leading up was a storage closet and a bathroom with a toilet and sink in it, nothing else.

He was amazed at how well-kept the place was, with rooms in different colors but well-organized and none too frilly or feminine. He saw hints of pink, yellow, and baby blue in each room, but they were minor highlights, never main colors. The living room was largely in soothing greens while the dining room was largely in medium browns which were also soothing, both highlighted in a creamy color with a brown-gray hue. The kitchen was in medium blue and wood tones, and the sitting room was a room where purples and reds were predominant, taking him a bit aback, though it still looked very attractive. The latter also had a piano in it, as well as a few display cabinets and bookshelves.

As he wandered through the house, he saw personal touches of the girls and of the woman who had once lived there, and his fingers drifted over those personal objects, brushing away faint traces of gathering dust. There was nothing which would tell him what he wanted to know in those rooms, however, so he made his way upstairs.

At a glance, he saw four bedrooms and a full bathroom, the bathroom and smaller two rooms on the same side as the kitchen and bathroom on the first floor. Of the two rooms on the left, one was a little smaller and was in the neutral tones of a guest bedroom, while the slightly larger one was in mostly gray and blue with red highlights, but was obviously a young girl's room. The other two rooms were a bit larger, the master bedroom with a checkered blanket and largely in green while the last room was mostly in yellow, burgundy, and purple, also showing as obviously a girl's room. A tomboyish girl.

Genesis chuckled when he saw Shalua's room, but didn't start poking around in either of his sisters' rooms. He was sure their mother wouldn't have hidden anything about him in their rooms, so his first stop was in her room, where he paced on the floor, using his stride deliberately to 'tap' on the floor to find a hollow which was out of place.

Even then, he almost missed the difference in the floorboards where there was a hollow, showing how well-hidden it was, especially since it was right next to the wall beside the closet. Kneeling, he fingered the board he'd felt was odd until applying pressure to the very left bottom corner of it caused the board to pop up. Setting it aside, he looked into the cubbyhole he'd found, and saw three objects in it—a pair of baby booties in green, a hand-written diary, and a small photo album. The height and width of the last was only just enough to fit a four by six photograph, and it was only a quarter of an inch thick.

Carefully, the young man pulled the objects out and replaced the board, then tucked the baby booties in his pocket and flipped through the diary, realizing he'd have to read it to know what it actually said...what she thought of him. Until he got to the last page and found a scrawl in a shaky hand, 'I wish I had never given him up, my dearest son.' He felt his throat tightening, but closed the diary and stuck it in his pocket as well, then flipped through the photo album. It held eighteen pictures, some of a woman with deep red hair and blue eyes, some with a man who had orange hair and green eyes (4), and...a very last picture of a woman holding a baby wrapped in a red and blue blanket.

Slipping his hand into the plastic case holding the photo, Genesis pulled it out to look more closely, seeing how much love was in her expression as she looked down at the baby she held. Flipping it over, he read the inscription on the back, ' _My first-born and the new love of my life, Sheridan Rui (5). Welcome home._ ' Below it was written in a different, more erratic, script, ' _You lucky bugger! You've got the best woman in the world wrapped around your finger, and you're only three days old!_ '

Suddenly, Genesis lost his gravity and dropped to the floor, laughing and crying at the same time as he clutched the picture tightly to his chest, though the laughter didn't last very long.

"Sheridan Rui..." he whispered. "I would have been Sheridan Rui, Shalua and Shelke's older brother...Why was I taken away?"

Slowly, he lifted the photo up to look at it again, tracing the woman's face and his infant form with one finger. She hadn't wanted to give him up. By the sounds of what Shalua had said, the woman had never recovered.

It took him some time to calm his tears and wipe them away, at which time he sat up to look again at the rest of the pictures. His father looked vaguely familiar, as though he'd seen him somewhere before, but couldn't call anything to mind as he looked at the man with orange hair, sideburns, and a habit of wearing sunglasses. Only two of the pictures including him showed his eyes, and Genesis traced the lines of the man's face with his finger on one of those. Another picture showed Shalyn while heavily pregnant as she gently rubbed her belly, which was another picture he traced with his finger. He began checking the backs of the pictures for notes, and quickly found most didn't have any, except for the one of him and the one of his mother while she was pregnant.

On the back of the picture with the pregnant Shalyn, he saw the words, ' _I'm fat and ugly._ ' Those were in his mother's writing, and the wilder scrawl of the one he assumed was his father answered, ' _You're going to have a baby, and you're beautiful, Shalyn._ ' Below that was his mother's scrawl again, ' _Flattery will get you everywhere, Kariya._ ' (6) The man replied with, ' _I know. But it's also true. You're beautiful. I just wish Shinra would let us marry._ ' Finally, his mother's writing answered, ' _So do I. So do I._ '

It had been an entire conversation and told him something very important—his father's family name was different from his and his sisters', because their parents hadn't been married and they had the Rui—their mother's—name. Maybe his father was still alive, especially since he had the eerie sensation once again of having seen the man or heard his name (or both) at some point in recent enough memory for him to think it was familiar? 'Kariya' wasn't a lot to go on, but he may be able to borrow the Turks' database to find him, especially since he _did_ have the visual of the man. If his father was a member of Shinra. If he wasn't, he might have to ask Reeve for another favor, and the man was already sticking his neck out for him with Shelke...

Putting all the pictures back in the album, he added that to his pocket, then rose to walk slowly around the upstairs again, pausing in each room to imagine the people in the house in them. In his mother's room, he imagined her sitting on the edge of the bed while his father knelt in front of her and they both held their hands to her pregnant belly. Of course, she'd have been pregnant with one of his sisters in that case. In Shalua's room, he imagined books spread on her desk while she practiced hand-stands against the blank wall near the window. In Shelke's, he noted the computer on her desk and imagined her sitting there working on it while holding a fuzzy stuffed wolf—a Kalm Fang, which was purplish—in her lap. It was one of the three stuffed toys on her bed, the other two being a yellow Chocobo and an Ironite.

Suddenly, he had an urge to pick up one of those stuffed toys, the Ironite dragon in pale pink, cream, and grayish-purple. It was fairly small, but its wing-span made it seem a lot larger, so he tightly wrapped the wings around its body to fit it in his pocket. Done with that, he went back downstairs to look around there once more.

And this was the home he'd lost, a home and family he could have loved...

 **Notes:**

(1) I think this was a comment in a flashback in Dirge of Cerberus, where the older Shalua said briefly that six months after their sickly mother died of illness was when Shelke was kidnapped.

(2) Yes, all of the kids have the same father, but no, even Shalua never saw him, even though her mother had Shelke when she was five or six. That leaves two options—their father died or was very good at staying out of sight unless he wanted to be seen. Or both, I guess. I'm going with the 'good at staying out of sight' option.

(3) The town and its location is completely irrelevant because it's never returned to again after Genesis leaves.

(4) Yes, this is a character in the FFVII world.

(5) Obviously a completely made-up name like Shalyn's, but I figured it fit in with Shalua, Shelke, and Shalyn, so I'm working on the premise that their mother is naming them and thought it would be wonderful to give them themed names (two 'Sha's' and two 'She's').

(6) This is a reference to the same character as noted in (4) above. The data on him had a trivia note saying he looked a lot like the character called 'Kariya' from another series, so I hijacked the name to be his. Can anyone guess who he is? :D


	21. 21-More Clues

**A/N:** All of the Turks from Before Crisis have been hired on, though some of their general dates of hiring I've modified to suit the story line. More about that will be noted later, when they start showing up in the story line. Also, due to the Deepground case, the Turks who had been moved from other departments later in the Before Crisis game have been moved early and are all working out of their main investigative office when not away to investigate something or complete a mission.

More Clues

As Genesis stepped out of the Rui home, two men in uniforms similar to SOLDIER's but in medium blue and with glowing highlights on a bodysuit which replaced the standard harness landed in the middle of the street in front of him. The icon they wore on their belts was also SOLDIER's, but with a modification he'd never seen before, probably the one for the hidden unit who had Shelke. (1) The few civilians who had been on the street pulled back in fear and ran into the nearest houses, and Genesis himself tipped his head slightly in morbid curiosity and complete lack of fear. The two men had drawn blades and were smirking.

"You really should have turned your back on whoever asked you to poke around," one man said. "Because you're no match for us."

"Oh? And who are you?" he asked brazenly, already assessing what the difference in strength may be. He wasn't finding it to be in their favor. "And what makes you think anyone _asked_ me to poke around my birth mother's home?"

"Riiight..." the other man snorted, clearly not believing Genesis' words.

The first said, "Maybe you know, or maybe you don't. Deepground is more than you'll ever be. It won't matter to you soon because you'll be dead."

"...What the Hell is Deepground?" Genesis asked with a raised brow, hand moving to Rapier's hilt.

Both just smirked—and jumped at him. Expecting the attack, Genesis retaliated with a Fire 3 meant more to obscure their vision than to harm them, causing their blows to miss him as he jumped aside. Drawing his sword and sliding his hand along it to activate his Fire Blade, he was immediately moving to attack the two again, striking the first as the man's body erupted in flames. As the man screamed once then died, he moved to attack the other, who managed to strike him and knock him back. The blow _hurt_ , but it didn't actually do him any damage—

But before he could jump forward to attack again, a gunshot rang out and the second Deepground SOLDIER fell to the ground, a bullet hole in his head. Looking up at a nearby rooftop, Genesis caught sight of a Turk, who quickly jumped down so the red haired man could see him clearly.

"Tseng," Genesis blinked as the nineteen-year-old Wutain man (2) with his black hair pulled back in a ponytail at the back of his head moved over to examine the body of the one he'd shot. The man had dark eyes, slender features, and a strange, dark gem in the middle of his forehead called a tilak.

"Why are you here, Genesis?" the Turk asked, facing him with his gun pointed at Genesis' forehead, his eyes hard.

Sighing—and vaguely realizing he now knew how Ed felt when he was being accused of being an experimental subject—Genesis asked, "Are you going to attack me for coming to see my birth mother's home, too?"

"Your—what?" the Wutain man asked in surprise, gaze uncertain but gun not wavering.

"You're a Turk so you should know the name Edward, right?"

"Yes..."

"He found some information that said my birth mother's name was Shalyn Rui. This was her home, so I came to see it, find out if there was any trace of whether or not she had ever wanted me. That's all. If I got caught up in something else, well...Sorry."

Slowly, Tseng's gun went down, but then his head turned as his gun pointed at another nearby rooftop and he shot. Genesis had followed his gaze in time to see another Deepground member dodge the bullet and shoot down at Tseng with a glowing, blue blade—Ice Blade. Since he could, Genesis called on the explosive fire arrays he knew by heart to create a veritable vortex around his blade and jumped to meet the Deepground attacker in the middle. The resulting explosion was fierce enough to damage the nearby homes and leave everyone present with ringing ears and spotty vision. When the light and dust cleared, though, Genesis was left standing near a decidedly calm Tseng and the attacker had collapsed some feet away.

"Impossible..." the man gasped out before he died.

"...Well _that_ was fun," Genesis commented wryly, then turned back to Tseng, who was gazing at him evenly. "I got involved in something by accident, didn't I?"

"Your timing was—eerie. And yes. We can only hope we can sort it out soon, or you'll probably be attacked again. I can't do anything about that except validate your innocence to the Turks so we won't attack you if you get caught in another incident. Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes. I think the thing that hurts most is that I wasn't allowed to stay with my own mother, to be raised by her, but I had been wanted. I can't change it now," Genesis answered with a shrug and a sad expression. "I don't know about those guys, though. They gave the impression they were supposed to be really strong, but either I'm stronger than I realized or they're full of themselves. Do you have any idea why they wore an icon like my SOLDIER one?"

Shaking his head, Tseng looked back down at the man he'd shot and said, "I don't know any more than you, unfortunately. It probably ties in to what happened to Ragnarok, though. It's just that this house was under Shinra observation, and I really don't think anyone who knew the situation expected you to ever find out about your birth mother and come looking, so you tripped all the alarms by being unauthorized to be here."

"Oh. I wish I had known that sooner so I could have asked for authorization," the red haired man answered. "Then again, I probably would have been turned down."

The words caused Tseng to chuckle and admit, "Probably. Let's go, then. I have a report to give." He turned to head away, saying, "We'll give you a lift in our chopper."

With a wry grin, Genesis fell in with him, sheathing Rapier as he did. "Thanks. That'll save me some time. Hey, Tseng, do you think I could convince you guys to let me use your systems to try to find someone?"

"Who's that?"

"Apparently a Shinra employee, either a former Turk or research assistant who was assigned to Shinra Manor twenty to twenty-five years ago."

"...What?"

"Just something Ed said—Sephiroth's mother was apparently a Doctor Lucrecia Crescent, but...he looks nothing like Hojo, so I doubt he's Seph's father. One of those men was apparently having an affair with Lucrecia, so I want to see if I can figure out a potential based on how they look compared to Sephiroth." As much as he'd also like to try finding Kariya, he'd rather take one thing at a time, and he already had Shalua and Shelke to worry about, while Sephiroth really had no one but him and Angeal.

To his surprise, Tseng snorted. (3) "And Ed set you on that path when he apparently has the memory and mindset of a ten-year-old?"

"Hey, the kid's got a good mind. At any age, apparently," Genesis said wryly.

Chuckling faintly, the Wutain man said, "We can do that when we get back. Well, it'll probably have to be tomorrow evening if you expect me to save your skin tonight."

"Great, thanks!" Genesis said as they reached the chopper and got in. "I appreciate it, on both counts."

"Well, I also could have been in trouble with that blade attack the last one was using. If you were really working against Shinra, I doubt you'd have saved me," Tseng answered, knocking on the wall of the chopper's hold between it and the cockpit, then sitting down as it took off. Genesis also sat. "I'm starting to see why Veld wants that boy and why Freyra and Rude respect him so much, though."

"Too true. Did you know he can climb down the north wall of Cosmo Canyon by the town? Without help or any support?"

The man blinked at that and said, "So that's how he got away from Rude's watchful eye. If he was really like that at ten, his parents must have been praying for a miracle that he'd behave—every day."

"I never actually asked him why he left or what caused his memory loss—I mean, from Veld. I just overheard Veld talking with Freyra and asked them to let me be the intermediary because there are some—very critical to his survival—things only I know about him, and I needed to be able to tell him those without having all and sundry know. Could you tell me what happened at Cosmo Canyon?"

"From what I heard, something happened and he passed out cold while mountain climbing above the river ravine, falling head-first into it. The fall killed him, but he somehow survived, and apparently Neo Bahamut appeared and brought him back up to the town. Once he was fully healed, he fell straight to sleep—and woke up missing six years of his memory. Rude had been keeping a close eye on him because of that, but he still managed to give him the slip."

Genesis was silent for several minutes as he pondered the situation, then he realized exactly what had happened. "Oh God. Final Attack—he has Final Attack paired with Revive, and even though it saved his life, it also meant he had just experienced death, probably for the first time. I know from personal experience how traumatizing that is, especially if it's tied in to some past memories of his loved ones and more if his Revive is still only able to access Life, not Life 2." He carefully didn't say that the reason Ed had passed out was because of Neo Bahamut's Materia, which he'd somehow come into direct contact with while climbing.

Tseng eyed Genesis' slightly pale expression for a minute before looking away and saying, "I suppose I can understand that to some degree after some of my own experiences. There are rumors of how hard on the body and mind Final Attack can be, but...How likely is it for some random joe to know anything about that particular pairing? The name it uses often diverts people from its actual value in saving their lives, and it gets taken more as a suicide attack."

"There's that," the SOLDIER agreed. "It can be used effectively that way, but normally only if paired with Mastered Materia or a Summon. No, I knew he had Final Attack on him because he knows the base array—and probably the other functionality control arrays—for it. If some of the things we've discussed are true, then he's truly got a mind anyone could appreciate or envy, and he came to that conclusion himself. He'd do well in the research and science departments in Shinra or in SOLDIER if the Turks decide they don't want him after all."

"Oh, no, Veld wants him so much he's glossing over every rule he's broken—both of them—to keep tabs on the boy," Tseng answered in wry amusement. "And Ed's also apparently interested in the proposition, but the research he was doing when he lost his memory has been holding him back from making that decision."

"Yes. Because the reason for that research is debilitating. That was how he passed out while climbing, actually," Genesis told the Turk with a small smile, and was rewarded with a startled blink.

"Now Veld's behavior is really starting to make sense. Here's to hoping Edward gets his head on straight again soon."

"Agreed."

CA

The next day, it was evening when Genesis made his way into Sector 2 to meet Shalua. It didn't take her long to find him as she asked, "So, how did it go?"

He turned to face her as he smiled. "I had a rather interesting trip. Deepground showed their faces—those are the ones who I think took Shelke. Three of them attacked me when I stepped outside after. Well, two attacked me, and one of the Turks showed up to shoot one of those, then the third tried to attack him and I intercepted. I was able to pass off my trip there as exactly what it was—me visiting my birth mother's home. Tseng—the Turk—covered for me after I accidentally went there without knowing I had to get clearance to be there."

"Holy..." Shalua stared. "I had no idea we were being watched so closely. Did you find anything about yourself?"

"Yes, that as well," Genesis agreed. "I haven't had time to read the diary yet, but the last page sort of said it all. There was a photo album with pictures of our parents, and one of me as a baby, too. We can look through it if you want—only two pictures had writing on the back, and one of those said my birth name."

"And? What should your name have been?" she asked eagerly.

"Sheridan Rui," he smiled. "By the way—it seems Rui isn't our father's family name, it's our mother's. Shinra was apparently not allowing them to marry, even though I guess they didn't care if they had kids together."

"Our father?" Shalua gasped. "She really had pictures of him, and never showed us?"

"There was probably a reason for that," Genesis answered dryly. "Now, let's find a place to sit and look at the pictures."

"Sure!"

The girl quickly led the way to a secluded dead end where several crates had been piled like steps—high enough to get over the alley wall, in fact—and they sat down side-by-side so the young man could pull out the album and hold it between them. They flipped through the pictures, Shalua in avid curiosity and joy, and Genesis with the same sentimentality and awareness as the first time. The two pictures with writing on the backs, he took out to let the girl read them, and she was saddened by their parents' inability to marry but amused by the notes about baby Sheridan.

When they were done, the girl leaned back against the crate behind them and looked at him thoughtfully as she asked, "Will you change your name back to Sheridan Rui, or will you just keep Genesis Rhapsodos?"

Lifting his shoulders in a shrug, he answered, "I don't actually know. I've been Genesis forever—for as far back as I can remember—and there are definite benefits at the moment for maintaining that. Maybe something will change later and I'd be better off changing it back to my birth name, but...I'm not Sheridan Rui. I haven't been since I was taken away from our mother. Nothing can change that fact. What I won't do is cast aside my past and my family now, no matter what name I actively use, okay, Shalua?"

She was quiet for a minute, then nodded and said, "I guess I understand. I grew up as Shalua Rui, but even if I was told I'd had another name when I was born, I'd still be Shalua. I guess Sephiroth is right and the name doesn't actually matter, because you're still my brother anyway. Do you think we could try to find our father, too? Shelke first because she's definitely in danger and she's only nine, but it would be nice to know if he's still alive now and if we could have one of our parents at least..."

"I had thought of that, too. The strange thing is that I feel like I've seen him somewhere before, but I can't put my finger on it. I just wish I could remember, since that would tell us where to look, at least to start a search for him. In the meantime, I've been thinking about your situation, and I was wondering if you'd let me pay for a home here in the city for you. Food, clothing, bills—I have lots of money and can afford to take care of you while we're looking for Shelke."

"I've been taking care of myself and Shelke since our mother died!"

"Yes, I'm aware of that, and you've done very well. I'm not questioning your ability to do so, otherwise I'd insist you move in with me. What I'm saying is that the bills and food, and the cost of your living space, shouldn't have to be your responsibility. Also, it gives us a feasible reason to meet, and a private place to talk."

At first, Shalua seemed upset about what he was saying, but then she calmed down and asked slowly, "Would you be choosing everything for me, or would I have say?"

"I would hope to get your opinions and preferences so I know what I'm covering and why, and so we can compromise something if I can't see a logical reason for you to have it. For example, if you wanted forty thousand gil a month for clothes, I'd say you were off your rocker, and unless you could give me a very good reason for that—and _not_ so you could get everything tailor-made and decked out in gems—I'd work with you to find a moderate allowance for you to get clothes you like," Genesis chuckled, poking her side with one finger.

Chuckling and batting his hand away, the fourteen-year-old said, "Well, you could always suck it up and come shopping with me when I want to actually shop for clothes, because I only do that once or twice a year. The most expensive year was one where Mom spent five thousand gil on both me and Shelke because we both grew almost half a foot in six months. I don't need a huge allowance, just a good estimate for food, maybe a little higher than the budget Mom had for us." She then jumped down from the crate and said, "Come with me."

He hopped off the crate as well and followed her as he said in amusement, "Don't worry, I like shopping." He then asked, "Where are we going?" He was rather curious about that, as she seemed to have a definite destination in mind.

"There's an apartment building I've always looked at, a place I'd like to live. If that's not good enough for you, the most you could do is pick a random amount for an allowance and let me handle things myself from there."

"I see," Genesis blinked, then smiled. "I guess that's fair. We'll have a look, then."

Not too long after, Shalua led them to the front doors of a moderate apartment building whose owners weren't Shinra employees and who kept a clean living space. Unlike the plain, gray Shinra buildings, this one was red brick with flowering vines creeping up trellises on the building walls, and there was about fifteen feet of garden space—enough for a trail winding slightly through gardens of flowers, bushes, and trees—around it. It had four floors, one, two, and three bedroom apartments, stairs and an elevator, and even allowed pets as long as the owners could check every now and then to make sure the place and the pets were both being taken care of for the first year. All-in-all, it was a nice building, and Genesis didn't immediately see any problem with it.

"This is the place?" he asked Shalua.

"Yes. There are only two in this Sector and one or two in the other Sectors which aren't owned by Shinra, but I've looked at all of them, and most of them are...more like slum buildings. Sector 4 seems to be the only one with half-decent condition buildings and shops which aren't the property of Shinra," Shalua said. "This is the one I like best of the two here. They sometimes also come furnished, and almost every apartment has a small bed in all the bedrooms and a couch in the living room. If you're willing, though, I'll need furniture unless someone moved out last month and left all their furniture behind for the next person."

Chuckling, Genesis answered, "I gathered I'd have to furnish your home when I offered. Let's go see what the manager has to say." He led the way to the office and knocked on the door.

A man who was slightly portly opened the door, blinked at them, then gaped as he gasped, "Commander Rhapsodos, I hope no one here has committed a crime!"

There was a shocked silence, then Shalua giggled, prompting Genesis to chuckle and shake his head. The manager (or the owner) blinked at the giggling girl, then turned his gaze back to Genesis, who said, "No, no one's in trouble. I've just found out I have siblings from my birth mother, though, and Shalua needs a place to stay while we look for our baby sister. I'd like to ask some questions so I can hopefully set her up with a secure home."

"Oh!" the man gasped, giving a relieved smile. "Come in, then! Sit, ask anything you'd like. I was honestly worried for a minute there. Of course, I'd have done what I could to help you, but still—that would have been bad for business." He led them to his office desk and pulled some files out of a filing cabinet beside the desk chair on his side. Shalua and Genesis sat across from him as he flipped quickly through the files and said, "It looks like we have one three bedroom apartment available, and a few one and two bedroom ones—what are you looking for?"

"The average monthly cost of each would be a good start," Genesis said dryly.

Nodding, the man agreed, "Yes, there's that. The one bedrooms are about three hundred gil, the two bedrooms are three fifty, and the three bedrooms are four hundred. Sometimes we adjust those—a pet, for example, will increase the cost by fifty gil. If you want us to make sure your other bills are covered, we modify the price for that, as well, since it all runs through our mainframe. That changes depending on what bills you want us to cover. Anything else has to based on the size of suite you want."

Looking at Shalua, Genesis asked, "How likely are you to want to stay in Midgar with Shelke once we have her back?"

The girl frowned as she thought about it, then said, "Being at the house was—depressing after Mom died. I guess...depending on how things go...we might just stay here. It'll give Shelke a lot more to do with her affinity to technology. And it would be nice if you could stay here sometime, too, so we can get to know you."

"Three bedrooms, then?" Genesis confirmed, and she nodded, so the manager pulled out the file for the apartment in question. "And do you think you'd want to pay the bills separately or do it the easy way and make it into one payment? You'd only have to worry about food, clothes, and entertainment with the latter."

"...Well, how much would it cost to combine them?" Shalua asked curiously.

 **Notes:**

(1) Yes, I'm having them in their Deepground uniforms, not the only slightly modified SOLDIER First uniforms they usually left Deepground wearing in the original.

(2) We don't know his age—I couldn't find anything which said anything about his age at any point during the story line, only what year he joined the Turks and so on, so I'm making him the age I want him to be, which corresponds (in my mind) with his looks in Before Crisis. Because he looks like a pretty young adult in that one.

(3) Tseng's discipline usually has him come across rather flat, but in Before Crisis (and Last Order, even), his behavioral patterns weren't as flat as in the FFVII main game or later ones, so on occasion, he's going to do things which are more 'emotional' than his usual. No, I'm not making Tseng very openly emotional—though Ed seems to prompt him into expressing emotion more often than he normally would—but he's still a human being, discipline aside.


	22. 22-Turks' Office

Turks' Office

Genesis returned to Shinra Headquarters about an hour later, having made plans to meet Shalua again the next day to furnish her new apartment. He couldn't rest at that point, though, since Tseng was expecting him so he could search through their database for someone who resembled Sephiroth. As he reached the fifty-sixth floor and stepped into the Turks' main office, he was surprised to find Cait Sith barreling into him, climbing up his body by hooking small claws into his clothes, and presenting him with a rolled-up set of papers which the cat held in his mouth. The Turks who were there—about half of them right then—were all chuckling at Cait Sith's antics, and Genesis couldn't help but pat the cat on the head as he took the roll of papers out of his mouth.

"What are you doing, Cait Sith?" Genesis asked dryly as the robotic cat cuddled into his shoulder.

"Givin' ye Reeve's findin's on tha' girl," Cait Sith replied, and Genesis raised a brow as he put the papers in his pocket.

"I'll look at that once I get home, then. Thank you, and thank Reeve for me, as well. But why are you in the Turks' general office?" the man asked dryly.

"Tseng came talkin' to Reeve, an' 'borrowed' me after!" the cat replied, tail thrashing in agitation. "I couldn't give ye those 'til now, an' only because ye came here!"

"Genesis, you didn't happen to have an—accident—when you were back in Banora, did you?" Tseng asked as he walked up to them from his desk near the window.

"A what?" the red haired man asked blankly.

"As in, fooled around with a girl and got her pregnant."

The words made Genesis turn scarlet as he asked, "What are you asking that for?"

"The girl you asked Reeve to find looks—remarkably like you. If she's your daughter, the sense of responsibility you have would make a lot more sense."

At first, Genesis' jaw dropped open, then his blush cooled and he began laughing. "Daughter?" he laughed. "Oh, Goddess, Shalua would find that hilarious!" The red haired man still couldn't stop laughing, even as he repeated, "Daughter? Shelke, my kid? Holy Alexander, that's a good one!" When he'd finally calmed down, he looked at Tseng and said, "Try sister, Tseng. I have another sister, as well, but she's fourteen and not missing—speaking of, I'll be out with her getting furniture tomorrow."

All the Turks' eyes widened at the new information, but Tseng nodded, then pursed his lips and asked, "Why didn't Reeve tell me that?"

"Because I hadn't told him anything besides the fact that I wanted to find Shelke for her sister," Genesis answered dryly. "He may have thought I was making up the part about the sister, though, especially if he thought the same thing you did—that Shelke was my daughter and I was trying to cover that up."

The man's eyes slid closed for a minute as a smile twitched at the corners of his lips and he commented towards the ceiling, "That's two for two." He sighed faintly and asked, "What the Hell is going on around here lately?" His eyes returned to Genesis as he said, "Well, let's go to my station so you can try to find out what you wanted to know. That's currently the safest topic we have to work on right now, anyway."

"It is?" the red haired man asked with a raised brow.

Tseng headed back towards his desk and Genesis followed with Cait Sith still in his arms, even as the Wutain man said, "You've twice now managed to get directly or indirectly involved in a case of ours, and worse, they're linked. You've actually become the link for them by clarifying your family relations—and excused your involvement, thankfully—but there are things happening I can't share with you. As such, finding Sephiroth's birth father is pretty benign compared to recent...events."

By then, they were at the older man's desk, so Genesis asked in concern, "Do these 'events' mean we'll be sent on missions right here in Midgar, or are they elsewhere, like Kalm?"

"Right here," Tseng answered. "But whether you'll be sent on connected missions, I don't know. I just know someone was good enough to hijack Reeve's codes for system security, and that's deadly dangerous, even if we don't take into account the existence of Deepground. Sit."

At the command, the red haired man took Tseng's seat in front of the computer and showed him the open screen, which had two photos up. The left had a woman and the right had a man. "Sounds like you're dealing with a real expert—Reeve's level of skill," Genesis commented in curious concern.

"Yes. That's why I was at Reeve's earlier, actually. I also knew you'd be here now and had gone out around the time I went to talk with him, so since Cait Sith had to turn some data over to you, I brought him back here. And it's a safeguard, but I won't need to keep him much longer, anyway." The older man then waved off the conversation and pointed to the screen. Genesis listened intently as the Turk explained to him the functions of their search program.

"This is our internal database of all employees from the inception of the company. It can be set for multiple terms, and each side can have differing terms—this is mainly for comparative searches. You can adjust the terms with the button above the picture, and if you know a specific name—Lucrecia Crescent, for example—you can type it in the search bar above the picture. The employee name of the one in the picture is below, and clicking on it will pull up a sub-screen with their profile data. Clicking on the 'x' on the sub-screen will close it—you don't want to do anything else or you'll lose the whole search and close the program. Reeve is trying to fix that for us, but so far, it looks like he'll have to re-write the program to accomplish that.

"I opened one more program with this one for a specific individual's profile—Sephiroth's so you have both his and his mother's images to compare the potential father to. It's the one on the bottom bar. But, you have to be careful about your terms, regardless of which program you use, because setting the dates you want will pull up everyone with those dates somewhere in their file, even for an old infraction which happened at that time. Give it a try and ask me if you need a hand."

"Sure thing. Thanks, Tseng," the red haired man agreed as the black haired one stepped over to a desk a few away to talk softly with another Turk who was one of their newest additions—a blond haired seventeen-year-old young man who had just joined the month before and had barely made it to Rookie, the second rank in the Turks.

Genesis quickly pulled up the program on the bottom bar, found an image of his friend already in place, then put it back down so he could access the search bar on the left image. That one was easy, as all he had to do was type in Dr. Crescent's name, and there she was. He had to admit she was beautiful, and definitely accounted for some of Sephiroth's looks. Making the second search work correctly was much more difficult, as he had to start specifying terms he didn't actually know much about, but finally figured out not to use 'Shinra' in any of the term boxes. It was reduced to the dates '1977-1983', the word 'Manor', the gender 'male', and the exclusion of anyone titled 'Doctor' or 'Professor'. It was still a decent list, but much shorter than any previous list, as it only had a little over thirty employees in it.

Finally, he pulled Sephiroth's image up and placed it to the left of Lucrecia's so he could easily access the list on the right, flipping through the men in it. Some obviously weren't the right ones since they hadn't worked at Shinra Manor in Nibelheim, but the rest qualified. No less than six Turks had been there at any one time, and there were eight research assistants. During that time, several had switched off, and a few had even vanished, one of those a Turk.

It was the missing Turk who gave Genesis pause. The man had dark hair and delicate, aristocratic features, yet didn't look the least bit weak, and his expression was oddly sensitive for his position. Stopping there and pulling the image of his friend over to sit between Lurcecia's and the Turk's pictures, he was able to see the family resemblance. As much of her had come out in Sephiroth, so many more of his features were a match to the Turk's, and his friend's build was even a close match to this man's. The Turk's name was Vincent Valentine. (1) Cait Sith made an impressed 'ooooh' sound.

"Hey," a woman's voice said from across the desk, and Genesis looked up into a woman's brown eyes as she leaned forward and her ponytail fell over her shoulder. "I've been told I'm not allowed to call Ed right now. Have you heard anything about him since that day you asked to call him in Veld's place?" It was Freyra, and she looked legitimately concerned. She had only joined the Turks a few months ago, herself, and that had only been about a month before she'd 'introduced' him to Ed.

"He's doing fine," Genesis answered with a small smile. "I talk with him once a week, and it seems he found a place to hide and do research. Based on what I know, he lost his memory because he actually died, and even if Final Attack saved him, the trauma of dying is no less great. When he's ready to face it again, his memory will come back and he'll be back to normal."

"Won't he forget everything he learned and did in this time if he gets his memory back?" Freyra asked in surprise. "That's usually what happens, isn't it? They exchange one memory for another?"

"Sometimes, and there's a good chance of that if he's got 'amnesia' by that definition," the man admitted, but his expression was amused. "But I don't think his memory is so fragile that he would need to exchange them. He was aware of the missing time—which people who have 'exchange amnesia' often _don't_ know until they ask someone—and the loss of memory was keyed to death. I'm betting he associated it with deaths of people he cared about, so reduced his age to a time where he didn't remember those deaths. While we're still calling it amnesia, he still has a sense of familiarity of things which don't count as triggers. By that alone, it's more just memory suppression and he probably won't forget this time when his memory comes back."

"Oh. But he's safe?"

"Quite."

"Good. What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out who Sephiroth's parents actually _are_."

"Oooooh. Any luck?"

"Have a look at this."

She stepped around Tseng's desk to look at the three pictures, blinked, and said, "Holy, if those are his parents, no wonder he's practically a god!"

"Oh, I'm hurt!" Genesis teased. "My best friend is a god and I'm just a nobody!"

Freyra laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, then clicked a few buttons so the printer on the Wutain's desk began printing out the pictures. "Show him."

"I will," the red haired man agreed, pouting.

The woman beside him dropped a kiss on the top of his head (2) and said, "Don't worry, you're god-like in your own way, too, Genesis. After all, no one's better than you with Materia. Well, except maybe Ed."

Chuckling, the older man patted her arm, then pulled the pictures from the printer as they finished. They weren't top quality, but they were good quality compared to what he'd have gotten from his own office printer, and the features were still clear. "I'll visit him in the morning. And I want to call Ed and ask him about that Turk, since he looks like a really important person in your files."

From behind him, Tseng said, "Vincent Valentine is one of Veld's associates. Some of us have heard the occasional story about him, and he's practically someone we should revere. If he hadn't vanished back then, he'd probably have been the head of our department instead of Veld."

"He was that good?" Genesis asked, his tone impressed.

"Yes. We don't know as much about him as we'd like, but he sure does bear a strong resemblance to Sephiroth," Tseng agreed.

"Can you call Ed now?" Freyra asked eagerly. "If he knows anything, that would be really lucky—we could use someone like him with all the chaos here lately. And having Ed here would be good, too, since I think he could help."

"He already has been," Genesis chuckled. "But yes, I can call him if you really want."

"I do!" the woman agreed with a grin. "Even if I'm not allowed to talk with him directly."

Pulling out his PHS, Genesis found the boy's number and let it dial, and the call was answered in the middle of the second ring. "Is something wrong?" the boy asked.

"Not specifically wrong, but I have a few things I'd like to ask you, since you seem to have all the files," Genesis said.

"Sure," Ed agreed, tone a bit puzzled.

"Have you found anything there about a Turk called Vincent Valentine?"

A long silence followed the words, then Ed said, "Yes. There's files here about him. Um—can you promise not to repeat what I'm about to say? But—wait while I get back inside, since it's past supper and I was at my friend's place."

"All right, I'll wait, but don't disconnect the line if you're going into dangerous territory," the older man said. The two Turks looked a bit amused.

Ed snorted. "Me 'n' Cloud got rid of all the monsters the day we came here, and they haven't been back since. If they have, someone else has been killing them. I'll call you back in a few minutes. Geez, though...Rayne is going to have a fit if she realizes I left the house to go back to the Manor."

"Er, who is Rayne?"

"Cloud's mother."

Genesis chuckled at the words, then said, "Very well, call me back when you're there." He hung up and looked at the two, saying, "He had to change his location."

They nodded and waited patiently for the call back, which came about ten minutes later. When Genesis answered, he asked, "Are you settled?"

"Yes. Now, do you agree not to repeat what I'm going to tell you?"

Even with the Turks listening, he agreed, "I won't repeat what you tell me. Well, unless it's to Sephiroth, but there's a _good_ reason for that. What do you know?" As the two couldn't hear Ed's side of the conversation and Genesis could watch his words, they would find out very little of the actual content.

There was another pause, but much shorter, then the boy told him, "I don't know everything that happened, but he was apparently shot while on duty here and used in an experiment. Dr. Crescent was trying to save his life, I think, but he fell into a deep sleep in the process and Hojo used him in some experiments of his own. The purpose seems to have been to create a shapeshifter. He was left sleeping in a coffin in the basement, but he's—undead."

Genesis' eyes went huge and he asked, "Ed, are you saying he's still there?" The two Turks traded looks of puzzled concern.

"Well, considering he makes sure I eat lunch and leave in time for supper, that's pretty obvious, don't you think? Right now, he's pretty much taking my word that you're okay to tell, and I'm only telling you this because he said it was okay, he'll take the chance," the boy explained.

The red haired man felt a headache coming on and reached up to rub his head as he chuckled, "Only you, Ed, only you." He paused as the boy gave an indignant 'Hey!'. "You said he was shot. Were you able to find out who or why?"

"Mmm, he said Hojo shot him. I can guess it's because he 'got in the way', like it says in the letter Hojo left behind. Of what, I haven't been able to find out, and Vincent won't say, but he's got this weird thing about being worried about kids used in experiments—not that I blame him for being upset about that, but...He thought I was here because I was one of the child experiments at first, you know."

"Okay, that fills in a few blanks. Have you ever had the ability to look at a picture of Sephiroth next to one of him?"

"The only picture of Sephiroth here is in grainy black and white, so it's hard to see his features. Why?"

"I'm pretty sure he's the 'someone else' you talked about before who could have been Sephiroth's father in place of Hojo. In fact, I'd bet good gil, lots of it, on Vincent being Sephiroth's father. That's why I think he has the right to know about his real father and what happened to him. Is that okay with you?"

"Whoa...Hold on a sec." A fairly lengthy pause followed, then he said, "Vincent says you can, but quietly about him still being alive. He doesn't seem to want to really...make contact right now, but who knows if that will change. I sort of think he doesn't want to leave me on my own the way I am now, because he's convinced I'd have starved myself to death without him reminding me to eat."

Despite the slightly depressing notice that Vincent may ignore Sephiroth anyway, Genesis had to laugh. "It's good if locals are protective of you, since if you're anything like me, research leads to missed meals and sleep unless someone drags you away."

Ed snorted. "Yeah. Just like that. With Vincent, he actually thinks he's a monster and a danger to the people he cares about, too, and I'm an exception because I started barging in here, anyway. So, anyway, since you called—have you found anything about Shelke yet, and how's the other sister doing? Do you know?"

"Yes, my other sister is fourteen and her name's Shalua. I was just setting her up with a proper apartment here in the city while we look for Shelke. Also, I went to the family home—" Genesis paused for a moment before deciding to take the chance and continuing the sentence he'd cut off, "—and met some members of Deepground."

Tseng gripped his shoulder tight enough to be painful at the words, but Ed was already talking, so he just winced as he listened to the boy say, "I almost thought they'd pop up if you started poking around. Genesis, if some of these experiments are true, be careful with them. Regular members may not be that bad to fight, but the strongest ones of them will be nothing short of monsters—not because of the experiments so much as because of their mindsets and indoctrination."

"Indoctrination?" Genesis asked in mild alarm. "You found something on what Deepground is taught to believe?" At that, a now faintly concerned Tseng released his shoulder, tapped it, then pointed to his ear, but Ed was already talking.

"Not much, but yes—there's actually a file in here on the doctrines of every Department, what they're taught to believe, and how often those beliefs are being repeated to them. The rate for a lot of them is only infrequent, and most aren't getting it from birth, unlike in Deepground on both counts. Some of the things don't even make sense, regardless of Department, but the basis for Deepground is this: 'We exist to kill on the President's order. We are made strong so we will not fail to destroy, to utterly annihilate, anyone or anything threatening the President. There is no better feeling or goal than to slaughter the enemy. Death in battle is our honor.' If they attack you again, I don't think it'll be the same rank as the ones you just beat—I think they'll be stronger. So, be careful, okay, Genesis?"

"I will—Ed, is it okay if I share what you just told me with the Turks, or if I give the phone to the Turk in charge of the case so he can hear that from you directly?" the red haired man asked, meeting Tseng's gaze. The black haired man nodded.

"...Okay. Give him the phone and I'll answer whatever he wants me to answer," Ed agreed quietly, a small frown in his voice.

"His name's Tseng. Here," Genesis said, then offered his PHS to the man beside him.

With a nod, Tseng took the phone and strode to Veld's office as he said, "It's good to talk with you after so long of hearing about you. Apparently you've found some crucial information in a case I'm looking in—" That was the last the others in the main room heard before the door to Veld's office closed behind him.

After a silence, Genesis sighed and said, "Lovely. I guess I wait here until they're done so I can get my phone back."

Freyra and Cait Sith both chuckled, and the woman said, "I really want Ed's help here. He's really good at research. Actually, he's really good at a lot of things, and research is just part of it. Anyway, what did he say about Vincent and what happened to him?"

"That's certainly true," Genesis agreed, looking again at the pictures of Lucrecia, Vincent, and Sephiroth. "He—Vincent was used in an experiment. Hojo really has a sick mind...It's not enough that he used Lucrecia and Sephiroth in an experiment, he had to use Vincent, too..."

"Well that's a downer. Tseng is really thorough, so you'll probably be waiting awhile. Is there something else you can do?" Freyra asked.

"Ye can look at the data on Shelke," Cait Sith commented.

"Yes, I guess I can," Genesis agreed wryly, waving Freyra away as he pulled out the papers. "I'll ask him if he'd like to talk with you next time I call him, okay Freyra?" he asked her before she walked away.

"Sure," she agreed with a grin, then left him and Cait Sith alone at Tseng's desk.

 **Notes:**

(1) I never liked the 'implied' data that Hojo was Sephiroth's birth father, but while that seems to be the canon story, I'm playing it out this way (I know, a lot of people do it, but we're never actually told if Vincent was ever Lucrecia's _lover_ or not, and I never found any data saying she _married_ Hojo, only that she became his paramour). Really, though, I can't find any of Hojo's features in Sephiroth, and he's not a complete match to Jenova or Lucrecia, either. On the other hand—he _does_ look a lot like Vincent, especially if you make his hair black (or Vincent's white).

Some people may feel Vincent could never have attacked Sephiroth in FFVII if he'd been his father, but there are two defenses for that. The first is that there's a good chance Vincent wouldn't have known Sephiroth was his, either, in the original (if he was). The second is that, like it or not, there are times even in real life where a parent or child will kill a family member to stop them from killing others. It's not common, but it's been known to happen—and I don't see Vincent as the type to back down from that, especially if he feels he's somehow responsible (or partly responsible) for things ending up that way—which he does. Later on in the story, I point out that it takes a particular kind of strength to take that route, and I feel Vincent has it, while Sephiroth, oddly enough, does not (unless he's completely insane and doesn't care anymore).

(2) I just see Freyra behaving that way with someone she's on friendly terms with, like a teasing sister. Especially if she knows the other person won't mind, and I can't see Genesis minding it. They aren't anything like best friends, though—Freyra's too new to the Turks to be so close to any of the top three SOLDIERs.


	23. 23-Deepground and Chaos

**A/N:** The data on the organization and key people in Deepground is accurate, with one noted exception in Azul's age and arrival time there (which I deliberately changed), because I did this after a few hours of research on the topic. O.O Also, everything they have currently has no relation to Jenova or Genesis, because none of those events have happened—they're mainly running purely on Mako and other experiments.

Deepground and Chaos

Pulling out the papers, Genesis found eight of them, each with Sector data negating Shelke's presence, which didn't mean anything to him. At least, they didn't mean anything until he looked closer at the notes Reeve had written on the first page.

 _Genesis, I had to do quite a lot of work to even exhaust these options, and I feel like whoever took her pulled quite a vanishing act. It's like that ink—hidden in plain sight._

 _Either way, she's not in Midgar, not even the slums. Unless she's been taken by someone like Don Corneo, there's nowhere else to look here._

 _I can't do any more for you, so you're on your own from here on out. Sorry._

The last note had been added hastily, and it was letting him know the man's life was in danger if he dug any deeper. The very first note made him think to prop the sheet against the computer screen so he could get the intense backlight. Sure enough, he could now see words written in invisible ink in the spaces Reeve hadn't written in.

 _Do you know how hard it was to get into those files, Genesis? My own systems were fighting me at least part of the way—the security setting was through the roof! It resulted in me covering my tracks with an incident resembling cyber-terrorism, and there's no way I can do it again._

 _What I found is on the following pages, but this is the crux of it here._

 _Deepground is the President's private army, which grew out of what should have been an intensive medical care facility. Some of the people there currently are ones who were born there, but they also kidnap people (like Shelke), and sometimes take people injured in the line of duty, who all then disappear. Heidegger and Scarlet know about it and have 'contributed' to it, but they have no power there, only the codes to be given to Rufus so he'll be able to use them when he becomes President._

After reading the first page of what Reeve had written in invisible ink, Genesis was faintly pale, as it was confirming all the worst things Ed had told him. He just hoped the man was okay after that 'cyber-terrorism' act, but if Tseng was telling the truth, he was fine. Cait Sith probably had to stay with Genesis so he'd be able to act as the 'call center' between the two men, as he had the first time Genesis had asked for his help.

How Reeve had gotten himself out of trouble was a curiosity for another time, so he went back to the papers and moved the second one onto the screen to begin reading.

 _This is about their basic break-down and functionality._

 _There are experimental subjects, regular members, doctors, the Tsviets, and the Restrictors—the Tsviets are the leaders (4 official currently) and the Restrictors keep them all in check. They are strong and deadly. The strongest are the Tsviets and the Restrictors, and of those, the latter is the strongest. In terms you can understand, the only 4 Restrictors took out all of Ragnarok. In order to keep the Tsviets in line, as they were bred for rampant killing, the Restrictors had to be stronger than them._

 _Experimental subjects are the ones brought in or born there who are in an experimental phase. Those are the lowest rung, and the worst-abused. If they can't survive that Hell, they're allowed to die and tossed aside like trash, forgotten—only the strong, the very strong, survive there. Obviously, the doctors (all ones taught by Hojo) deal with them most in order to do the experiments that subject was slated for, but they don't care about their patients' agony, either, so don't make things easier for them with anesthetics or other drugs. The doctors aren't part of the system, but count as prisoners in there, unable to leave except through death._

 _Regular members are the successful experiments who have trained up to be good little pet soldiers and killing machines. They aren't zombies, but relish bloodshed, so would be dangerous to release into society for any form of rehab. The Tsviets were chosen as the strongest of those. While they don't answer to anyone in particular (rather, everyone answers to them, and one of the Tsviets is their ultimate leader), they have rules and regulations to stay within. In order to keep peace and control, the Restrictors—who were some of the first Deepground results—were meant to enforce those rules and are loyal only to the President. Everyone in Deepground also has some kind of binding on them to prevent them from attacking the Restrictors, but it doesn't seem to be fully functional yet._

Genesis was getting a headache as he read the screwed-up information Reeve had found, but he was only on the second page! He had a feeling he'd share this with Angeal and Sephiroth, as it was likely the three of them would eventually have to clean up that mess at some point, maybe sooner rather than later. For the moment, he went on to page three.

 _I couldn't find any identity information on the Restrictors. That bothers me, but at the moment, there's nothing to be done about it. I know they were designated as SOLDIER's 14th unit, the Lost Force, and no one ever sees their faces under their black masks. With enough digging in Deepground's own files—don't ask how I got in there, since I'm not even sure I know for sure—I got a basic understanding of their current regular members and the Tsviets. Even when you get to the part you're looking for, you need to keep reading, because this is all crucial to what you'll be up against._

 _Weiss the Immaculate: He's the Tsviets' leader, and was born there, one of the earliest of their experimental subjects, trained in twin blades and twin gunblades. He's only 14 and was designated as their leader only recently. His mother was one of the doctors there, and no one knows all of his skills, but he has top-notch strength and may even surpass the Restrictors. He cares about no one but his younger brother. That said, he's a respected and skilled leader, not just because of his strength but because of his tactical ability and planning which generally results in success with little or no loss of life, much like Sephiroth._

 _Nero the Sable: Weiss' biological brother and the reason their mother is dead—apparently, he has control of a dark force which activated upon birth and swallowed up his mother. He idolizes Weiss, and is only 13—but his age is irrelevant to his power. The darkness is apparently the result of stagnant Mako, which is the polar opposite of normal Mako and is uncontrollable, absorbing objects and people. If the records are true, this experiment was based on Grimoire Valentine's work on Chaos and Omega. His weapons consist of two sets of powerful handguns, two held by his mechanical implants and two he pulls from the darkness by his real hands._

At the words about Nero, Genesis felt even more ill, and his eyes focused on the name 'Grimoire Valentine'. Was there a connection to Vincent? Actually, even that wasn't the most concerning part, it was the identities of Chaos and Omega. A part of him thought he'd never know any more about them, but part of him also wondered if Ed had found anything about Chaos and Omega.

A sudden thought about the named man made him go back to the database Tseng had given him access to, and he replaced Lucrecia's name with Grimoire Valentine's. It pulled up a file of another scientist who had worked for Shinra—Vincent's father and a man Lucrecia had worked closely with on Chaos and Omega Theory. The project had been discontinued when it had proven too dangerous and nearly gotten both killed, though it _did_ kill Grimoire. The data was sparse in the database, which wasn't surprising, but it told him the most important part—somewhere, there would be further records on the research.

He couldn't find out any more on that, so continued reading the fourth page.

 _Azul the Cerulean (1): A man who was once ordinary, but valued strength and had no respect for the weak, even before his arrival in Deepground. His goal before landing where he is was to join SOLDIER. The only ones currently known to be able to defeat him were the Turk Rude while normal and Weiss since his induction into Deepground and acquiring his altered form. He's their only experimental subject to survive being given a metamorphose ability, the form being that of a Behemoth-like monster. His weapons are a cannon-style gun, his bare hands, or his Behemoth form._

 _Rosso the Crimson: The last of the official combat Tsviets, she's also the oldest of the ones born in Deepground at 15. She has never gone outside, and while being powerful, she and Azul are both easily defeated by Weiss. Granted a type of 'hyper' mode which greatly enhances all of her abilities, both physical and mental, she tends not to rely on that as she especially revels in bloodshed. Rather, her weapon of choice is a type of dual blade also capable of shooting bullets, but the closer she can get to a victim when killing them, the better in her mind._

 _Argento: Recently recruited and 'titled' as a Tsviet, she's actually more of an instructor and weaponscrafter, but while she doesn't fight often, when she does—she has power. Well, she was amongst the troops in the Wutai War, so knows very well how to craft unique and functional weapons._

 _Shelke (the Transparent): If she lives up to her capabilities in SND experiments, she'll be made one of the Tsviets, largely for information and data control. Her title isn't official yet as she's still in the experimental stage, and will be for several months, alternately with learning dual wield combat skills. Her progress isn't great yet; however, that is acknowledged to be largely because she's only a nine-year-old girl._

Genesis had to stop reading for a minute as he got to the end of the page, now knowing just how much Reeve had found. His sister was being tortured and experimented on! At the same time, unless they could find the entrance to Reactor 0, there was nothing he could do for her, and doing something stupid which would get him into trouble wouldn't help her. With Ed's abilities, they may be able to find it, but...would Shelke survive that long?

Abiding Reeve's note to continue reading after finding out the information on Shelke, the red haired man quickly read through the rest of the data on the other members of Deepground. Many had been injured in battle as SOLDIERs and taken away 'for medical care', but were handed to Deepground instead, and he was horrified by some of the names he saw—ones he'd known and trained with were amongst them. It was effectively a complete list of every person who was now a member, or maybe not entirely complete, but close enough. That, or these were the strongest and most unique of the members and any others were unremarkable in anything but their desire to live.

Finally, he got to the eighth and last page, where he found more written text rather than a list of people.

 _I have confirmed the entrance to Deepground is in the Shinra Building, and I was aware a 'Reactor 0' existed, as I've dealt with enough schematics of the city. What I didn't know was that it has become such a place for such a use, and unfortunately, some of the basic designs of Midgar, the Shinra Building, and surrounding areas have been changed during construction. When I went to find the original blueprints, I found that they had been destroyed, or had vanished, or both, almost as soon as the majority of the construction was complete. There isn't an existing blueprint for the Building or city other than the scale model of Midgar in my Department—and that won't help us with the nitty-gritty of finding the entrance to Reactor 0._

 _I have to warn you again, Genesis—if you go through with this, do it very carefully, because one wrong move and you and Shelke will both be dead. These aren't people to mess around with, and the President won't hesitate to slaughter you to preserve them. So far, it seems Tseng has been covering for you, but he won't be able to keep doing so if you openly move against Deepground. I won't tell you not to do it though, because just maybe that girl can still be saved, still be rehabilitated, and I would rather that than to see her continue suffering if I could do something to save her. If only we'd known all this sooner..._

 _Regardless, the last thing I can warn you about is their security system. Shinra security has always been impressive, but Deepground's is higher, more detailed, and with zero forgiveness. If you go in there physically, be prepared to fight for your life every step of the way against both machines and people which will kill you. Lasers, robots, trap rooms, poison gas—only those with the right codes can get in and out safely. I can't get those codes, because they aren't recorded in their systems, and hacking security itself just triggers every alarm and trap they've set. I think I even brushed against Shelke's SND right before I was kicked out._

 _This is all I can do for you. Good luck._

Shaking his head, Genesis whispered, "What the Hell did we find?"

Cait Sith looked up at him as he gathered the sheets and looked around the room. Most of the Turks had left, and Veld's office door was still closed. A look at the time showed almost an hour had passed—he wasn't sure if that was a 'short' hour or a 'long' hour. After what he'd been reading, he felt oddly disconnected and like both had happened at the same time. Had it really taken him an hour to read eight sheets of paper which weren't even completely full of invisible ink (they all had Sector data negating Shelke's presence in each) and look up Grimoire Valentine's profile?

With a sigh, he tucked the papers away and pulled Cait Sith tightly against him, cuddling the cat as he thought about what the papers had said. Shalua would be horrified. Not only that, but he really didn't want to hand over data on Deepground to AVALANCHE, either, so wasn't really sure how much to share with her.

Reeve, on the other hand, had really come through for him, and the data he hadn't been able to include hadn't been through any fault of his own. To have set up a false cyber-terrorist attack to cover his tracks meant he hadn't backed down at the first sign of trouble, either. The man was made of much sterner stuff than people realized (2) for him to have gone so far and gotten so much, and his mind was far sharper than anyone gave him credit for, since he even managed to pull the wool over Tseng's eyes. Tseng was almost impossible to lie to without giving it away.

"Thank you so much, Reeve. You did so much more than I had ever thought or suspected you could. If you ever need anything from me, ever, and you think I can help, just let me know," Genesis whispered to the cat, knowing Reeve would get the recording. A nod from Cait Sith let him know Reeve had it, had heard him directly.

Finally, a couple minutes later, Veld's office door opened and Tseng stepped out, looking slightly pale. Into the phone at his ear, he said, "I'll give the phone back to Genesis—he's been waiting here long enough to get it back." Moving back to his desk, he offered the PHS back to the older man as he said, "Sorry that took so long, and thanks. You should head out and get some rest."

"Thanks, and will do," Genesis agreed, rising with Cait Sith in one arm. He held the phone to his ear and said, "You really got put through the ringer, I suppose." Since he wasn't stopped from taking Cait Sith with him, he figured the time Tseng had to keep the robotic cat was up.

"Yeah. Holy, Tseng is _harsh_. I mean, I actually really respect how thorough he is, and I _really_ wouldn't want him as my enemy, you know?" Ed answered, sounding exhausted. "Add Veld to that, and—Holy. And my sixteen-year-old self wants to join them? Talk about a mess in the making."

Chuckling as he stepped out of the office and made his way to the elevator to go to his own room, he said as tiredly, "I can relate. The Turks definitely aren't for the weak at heart. But while you were talking with them, I found out something else of concern, something Lucrecia also worked on. Her file vaguely mentioned the project and the one who had proposed it—the project was on Chaos and Omega Theory and the one who started it was Grimoire Valentine. What have you found on it, if anything?"

"Yeah, Vincent's father got himself killed to prove it. The Theory itself existed in a few of the books here, but not in a tangible form, only as a kind of myth, like the Ancients. Chaos is proven to exist—that was the experiment Lucrecia did to Vincent, was to put Chaos in him—" The words caused Genesis to trip and stumble in shock, but he recovered himself and kept going as Ed kept talking. "But the only way to prove Omega's existence is to—kill the Planet. (3)"

"What does _that_ mean?" the red haired man asked in tired concern as he wondered what _else_ they were going to get mixed up in by his tracking down Sephiroth's father.

"The basic Theory states that the world Lifestream needs to be maintained, but even if it is, eventually it'll die out, and will have to gather all its remaining resources, detach itself from the Planet, and set off into space to find a new planet to start life on again. Gaia is a relatively young world and should have had lots of time—people would probably have died out by the time the world itself died if they'd never built Mako Reactors. No one believed what Grimoire and Lucrecia had researched about them, but the records are here—oddly enough, Lucrecia seems to have learned enough about Materia to use them as data storage units. I almost died of shock when I wasn't connecting to arrays in those Materia shards scattered around here. (4)"

"Wait, the Planet isn't really dying, is it? Will Vincent turn into a monster literally?" the red haired man asked in concern, and Cait Sith's grip on his shoulder tightened.

"Hmm...I'll tell you the Theory on Vincent's issue—Chaos—in the report's summary Lucrecia recorded in the shard and tell you what I think. 'Chaos is a semi-Weapon which acts according to the will of another Weapon, Omega, that the Planet calls forth in a time of threat. It is a being born of negative memories and the sins within a naturally occurring, stagnated and tainted form of Lifestream and is triggered by the Planet's reaction to an imbalance during periods of great catastrophe, decline, and mass planetary-scale destruction. In times of unusually excessive stagnant Lifestream increase, its ultimate purpose is to act as an executioner of all life and harbinger of death to allow the rest of the Planet's Lifestream to be gathered to a new planet to continue the cycle of life. Unlike all other Weapons, Chaos acts as a form of Summon originating from a type of Materia known as Protomateria, which we have excavated and returned to Shinra Manor for further study with samples of stagnant Mako.' (5)"

Ed paused there before heaving a sigh. "The Reactors drain the Lifestream from the Planet, causing the 'decline' which can trigger Chaos to awaken. I believe that's how they found the Protomateria, because the stagnant Mako pool was taking form very quickly in a short period of time. Stagnant Mako is formed by all the negative emotions and violent deaths taking place during wars, disasters, or mass slaughters, and the more people who die filled by negative emotions—hatred, jealousy, greed, anger, and so on—the more quickly the only known pool of it grows. That was where they found the Protomateria, but found it before it was ready to emerge. These are all actually facts you can trace. Chaos comes to exist in hatred to destroy, and has no other real purpose.

"But, Chaos and Vincent are sharing a body, form, mind, thoughts, and feelings because Lucrecia infused the Protomateria into him. Do I think Vincent will willingly mass-slaughter people? No. Do I think he, and Chaos, will kill people? Probably, especially if the Lifestream keeps getting eaten up. The best way to keep the worst from happening is to find a way to put Lifestream energy back into the Planet so it doesn't see itself as dying. Get it?"

By then, Genesis had gotten to his apartment, so sagged into his favorite chair and asked, "So, the being called Omega does what? Becomes a container to hold what Lifestream is left in the world?"

"A container, and a vessel to another world. Other Weapons just—act like an immune system, protecting the Planet from threats, but Omega is the last resort, and prepares the body, the Planet, for death. By gathering all the Lifestream that's left, it can use it to start the cycle over when it lands on another world. When it leaves, this world will become a barren rock."

For a few minutes, Genesis was quiet as he thought about the new information, then said tiredly, "Then, we can keep Vincent from becoming a monster, keep Chaos from awakening, by replenishing the Lifestream. Would just destroying or shutting down the Reactors help?"

"All that would do is increase the time we have before Chaos and Omega would trigger—but it wouldn't stop it from happening, and soon. And it would ruin the lives of the people who depend on it, which really won't help, either. I don't know what my sixteen-year-old memories already had figured out, but what I think is best is actually to try to find a way to put energy back into the Planet while just making the Reactors as efficient as they can be. Between the two, it should be enough. For that, I need more information on Materia and the Lifestream, though, and right now, I don't know it."

"Very well. Thank you for everything. We'd both better get some rest, though," Genesis chuckled, prompting them both to say their goodbyes. Once off the phone, he dropped Cait Sith into his chair and went to his room to crash—without even doing more than pulling off his coat and slipping his boots off.

CA

Far away in Nibelheim, Ed looked up at Vincent, who was staring at him in shock. "You're not a monster, you know," he told the man. "Chaos or not, you aren't one. You can be a whole lot to your son, and we can find a way to fix the problems we've caused. Chaos doesn't have to awaken or destroy anything, not the way he originally existed to."

"How can you say that with what you know about the Theory?" Vincent asked.

"Because you'd be a good father. Don't argue, Vincent. I'm a ten-year-old right now, and you've been taking care of me just like a father would, and I have the right to judge that. Even if Sephiroth's not a kid, that doesn't mean he doesn't need a family."

The man stayed silent, but returned Ed's farewell hug as the boy left.

 **Notes:**

Just so you know, no, I'm not switching back to Ed's perspective yet, since there's still a few things Genesis needs to sort before then.

(1) In the actual timeline, Azul doesn't join Deepground until a few years after this point, but I figure if he had such an obsession with strength from the time he was young, he'd probably have gone for SOLDIER and wound up in Deepground much sooner than he did in canon. He had an altercation with Rude at one point a few years prior to this point in my story, the situation happening differently than in Before Crisis due to the change in timing—though he still winds up in the same place and the same state.

(2) Everyone refers to Reeve as a coward, but anyone who knows the whole FFVII story probably can't (completely) justify that sentiment anymore. He's just showing his backbone ten years sooner this time. :P

(3) This data and the rest about the Chaos and Omega Theory is actually from the page on the wikia by that name, or from the pages for Chaos and Omega independently.

(4) In Dirge of Cerberus, we mysteriously find out that some special shards of Materia were in Shinra Manor—the labs and library—the whole time, containing all of Lucrecia's research on Chaos and Omega. I'd place bets on Ed finding them!

(5) Direct quote from Lucrecia's work.


	24. 24-Many Faceted

Many Faceted

Morning came all too soon for Genesis, and he only woke at a reasonable time (at about eight in the morning) because Cait Sith poked him awake. "Ye got time te talk te Reeve?" the robotic cat asked when glowing, Mako blue-green eyes moved to him dazedly.

Closing his eyes and sighing, the red haired man muttered, "Go right ahead, may as well. I just hope nothing else gets dumped on me in one day."

"Now that it's the next day?" Reeve's voice asked in mild amusement. "But no, I shouldn't have anything else to report or add to any of the other bombshells dropped on you. Rather, thanks to Cait Sith's hearing, I've been considering some of the things Ed said to you about Chaos, Omega, returning Lifestream to the Planet, and the Reactors. I hadn't thought much about it before, but he's right about the Reactors not being very efficient, certainly not as much as they can be. Back when I started with Shinra, technology was just on the rise and hadn't developed enough to increase efficiency, but now, there's more than enough new developments to do so. I want to work on that, but I first have to convince the President that's the way to go, which I should be able to do by showing him how much more money he can make by adapting the Reactors. Sounds good to you?"

After absently considering the words for a couple minutes, Genesis smiled, eyes still closed as he lay in bed, suddenly feeling a lot more relaxed. "It sounds great. And you know, after what you found on Shelke, I think you really can do it, too." He opened his eyes and looked at Cait Sith as he propped his head on one arm. "But there _is_ something I'm curious about."

"What's that?"

"You said you made your hacking look like cyber-terrorism. What did you _do_? And how did you ever convince Tseng you were innocent?"

Chuckling, Reeve answered, "You know...I actually have—had—three Cait Siths. You're very good at finding the one designated as '1', who is more of a free-roamer. '2' stays with me for defensive purposes, and '3' operated a shell suit meant to be a decoy of myself. The decoy's original appearance was identical to my own, but I put it in casual clothes with a militant bend and a blond wig, then sent '3' to a factory warehouse to set up a computer system and make a good show of using the decoy suit to look like it was hacking Shinra. For what it's worth, between '3' and myself routing my actual activities through the computer in that warehouse, the decoy may as well have been hacking it.

"That I had arranged fairly early on when I saw the first levels of intensive security I'd have to get through, knowing my work would attract the Turks at the very least. Sure enough, they traced the hack to the warehouse, saw some glimpses of Deepground data being moved to storage units, and blew the place up before asking any questions." Genesis began to chuckle as he heard that, but Reeve went on, "What they didn't know was that the warehouse I chose was filled with fireworks explosives, which basically incinerated any evidence of the body they could have found." The chuckle became a laugh, so Reeve waited until Genesis stopped before going on. "I had been counting on that 'kill first, ask questions of the corpse' mentality they have, but it didn't stop Tseng from recognizing what some of the hacking codes were, hence why he came to me."

"And, how were you able to convince Tseng you had nothing to do with it?"

"Do you want to hear the recording or should I summarize?"

"You have a recording of your conversation with him?"

"Cait Sith '1' was there when we had it, so he recorded it."

"Oooo. Okay, let's hear it, then."

Something in Cait Sith's head clicked and a recording began playing:

" _What'cha doin', Reeve?" Cait Sith asked over the sound of shuffling paper._

" _Writing my last notes for Genesis before Tseng gets here," Reeve answered. His tone was a bit decisive and harried, but shortly after, silence fell._

 _A knock sounded and a door opened as Reeve asked from a bit of a distance, "Oh? What can I do for you, Tseng?"_

" _We had an incident earlier and I felt it best to check on you. May I come in?" Tseng's voice sounded._

" _Of course. What kind of incident?"_

 _Presumably, Tseng was allowed in as he said, "A cyber-terrorist got into our systems. Who is that girl?"_

" _Oh, Commander Rhapsodos asked me to see if I could find any public records of her in Midgar. I was just finishing up my search in the last city Sector. It's unfortunate, but I have to tell him she's not registered anywhere. Of course, if she was in Don Corneo's hands, I wouldn't have a public record of her, anyway, but anything else..."_

" _...I see. Reeve, what was the last news you heard of 'Deepground'?"_

" _Er...Maybe this is a stupid question, but what is Deepground?" the man asked, sounding truly puzzled._

 _A pause followed, then Tseng sighed, sounding relieved. "You weren't supposed to know, and I'd have had to kill you if you did. I can't disclose the details, but the cyber-terrorist had managed to steal records of them, something we absolutely couldn't risk falling into the hands of people like AVALANCHE. We have no idea who the person was working for, but...he was using your codes, Reeve."_

" _My...? You mean someone managed to get their hands on data I keep only in my head?"_

" _Yes. I recognized a few of them from some of the programs you helped us with, and there was no mistaking it. You can understand my concerns about security being compromised and you potentially having been involved, yes?"_

" _Unfortunately, yes. What did you do to him? Could you capture him and ask him how he got those codes?"_

" _No—we had to destroy his hard copies and terminals, but...Well, let's just say I'm very thankful the area was deserted when the location went up in smoke and fireworks. We destroyed anything he could have passed on to others, but we're now at a dead end and security is still compromised unless we know for sure everyone with those codes is dead. Is there a way you can—close the hole?"_

" _It's my system, Tseng. I built it from the ground up, and I never believed it would be completely safe. While I never expected it to turn out like this, I have a backup with data I can use to effectively completely re-write the programs I first built. Even if someone had the original codes, once I've changed over the system, the old codes will trigger alarms to send you to the location, but do nothing else. Also, since I had so long to work on it, our employees' registered and valid access passwords will remain unchanged, like yours, so it won't interfere with your regular work."_

" _How long will it take to do the switch completely?"_

" _About...two days, I suppose. As I said, the replacement is already written, I just have to implement it."_

" _Good, that will be very helpful. What if this happens again?"_

" _Once the replacement is in place, I'll start building another replacement program. It should take a couple months, but no more, largely because I know my own program and systems."_

" _It sounds like you've proven very astute. I'm glad you're on our side."_

" _I could say the same about you, Tseng," Reeve answered wryly._

 _A silence fell, then the Turk commented wryly, "You know, I was going to ask what interest the Commander has in this girl, but she looks like a carbon copy of him, or nearly."_

 _Reeve chuckled and said, "I had wondered about the similarity in their looks myself, but felt it prudent not to comment. He's—very protective of her, and the sense of responsibility he has for her well-being is palpable. He's been a Lady's man since he was a teenager, so I guess he could have had an—accident before he left Banora."_

" _That has some truth to it. It would also explain a great deal about his erratic behavior recently, if his own daughter had gone missing from her mother's care."_

" _And why he never seriously approached a woman since coming to Midgar..."_

At that conversation, Genesis went cross-eyed as he wondered if those were the usual kinds of conversations his co-workers had about him when he wasn't there. The recording continued playing:

" _Yes..." After another pause, Tseng asked, "When did you plan to deliver the results to him?"_

" _I was actually just about to send Cait Sith to deliver the papers with my notes on the search."_

 _Cait Sith yelped and burst out in some distress, "Put me down!"_

" _Consider this a minor security action," the black haired man answered, followed by the sound of shuffling paper. "I'll see that he gets the results, and I'm borrowing Cait Sith for the rest of the night. Get started on your system replacement."_

" _Of course. Don't keep Cait Sith from the Commander for too long, though."_

" _Why?"_

" _I think I made their AIs a little too well, and he seems to have triggered all of that particular Cait Sith's cat-like habits. '1' has rather become a hedonist who prefers his company because he can get lots of attention from him."_

 _Tseng actually chuckled at the words and replied, "Don't worry, he won't have to wait long. Reeve, you really are something with technology in your hands." A door closed, then Tseng muttered, "Dangerously something. If he can make a realistic cat's AI, I'd hate to see what he could do to Shinra if he got mad at the President."_

"An' that's all," the Cait Sith right in front of Genesis announced.

After a moment of surprise, the red haired man realized the recording had stopped, so he burst out laughing, letting out all the amusement he'd wanted to express during the recording, but hadn't dared to in case he missed something. It took him a good fifteen minutes to stop laughing, and was still chuckling when he pushed himself up, got washed and dressed for the day, and stepped into his main room. Cait Sith had climbed up onto the coffee table, and Genesis—who knew better than to try cooking his own meals—picked the cat up to carry him to the cafeteria.

"Thank you. I needed that after all the doom and gloom," Genesis said as he walked down the halls.

"Reeve says, 'Yer welcome, I thought ye'd need a laugh,'" the cat answered. It being Cait Sith who answered told him Reeve had work to do and couldn't talk then.

"Is he right that I'm basically adopting you as a semi-pet because you like the attention?" the young man asked.

"Yup!" Cait Sith agreed shamelessly, producing another chuckle.

"In that case, would you consider moving in with Shalua?"

"Yer other sister?" the cat asked curiously.

"Yes, she's got a place now, and since you're a robot, not a pet, you could stay with her, play with her, be her 'pet', without breaking the terms of her rental agreement. And if you did that, Reeve would know right away and be able to let me know if anything happened to her," Genesis explained. "I'm sure she'd love to give you all the attention you want."

Cait Sith was silent for a minute, then said, "Reeve has te make another one or two o' us, anyway, so he doesn't mind."

"Good. I'll take you with me when I go see her after lunch, then," he grinned.

Soon after, he got to the cafeteria and went to grab his meal before looking around to see who was there. Once he had it, he began scanning the tables and saw Angeal wave to him, so headed over to where the man was sitting. Sephiroth was sitting with him as well, so he greeted both and sat down to eat, Cait Sith curling up very much like a cat to sleep in his lap. They waited for him, as they'd nearly finished already, but it didn't take him long to finish and start playing with his food as he considered what to tell them. Rather, what to tell them first, since he had a lot to share.

"What's bothering you?" Angeal asked in concern. "Have your genes been acting up again?"

"What?" the red haired man blinked at his larger friend. He then smiled and said, "No, I'm fine. Just debating some of the data Reeve found for me about Shelke, and something I found out about Sephiroth."

"What about me?" the silver haired man asked with a small, almost worried frown.

Well, that made the decision of the order much easier. Pulling the photos from his pocket, the red haired man laid them out with Lucrecia and Vincent side-by-side above the picture of Sephiroth, oriented to his friend so the other man could see them clearly. "What do _you_ see?" he asked as Angeal also leaned over to look at them.

For a few minutes, the other two were silent, both blinking in surprise at times as the time passed. Finally, it was Angeal who said, "I could just be imagining things, but there's quite a resemblance between Sephiroth and these two...So who are they?"

"Is the woman Jenova?" Sephiroth asked suddenly, expression disconcerted.

"If Jenova is your mother, she's mine and Angeal's as well, or so it was put to me," Genesis replied, making the other two look up at him sharply. "'Jenova' is the name of the being who provided the cells which almost caused us to die, not of any of the women who gave birth to us. Like Angeal's mother is Gillian Hewley and mine is Shalyn Rui, _yours_ is Lucrecia Crescent. She was Hojo's paramour at the time—I know, disgusting thought, right?—but she had fallen in love with another man, which pissed off Hojo and he started referring to her as a 'whore'. I'm betting that's also why he claimed your mother was Jenova, basically just to spite her 'infidelity'. Of course, there was nothing about her ever having been married to Hojo, so I don't see what he was so upset about. This was the former Turk she fell in love with, and he's likely also your _actual_ biological father, Vincent Valentine."

Sephiroth's sharp gaze met Genesis' as he asked, "Grimoire Valentine's son?"

"Yes, exactly. You know about him? Grimoire, I mean."

"He and Professor Gast were two of the very few Shinra scientists I have any respect for," Sephiroth answered. "I was not aware he had a son or that his son had joined the Turks. What happened to Vincent?"

"Hojo shot him, and Lucrecia tried to save his life with something she'd been working on previously with Grimoire—he was dead by then if the dates in his file were accurate—but it wound up putting him to sleep. Hojo decided to use his prone body in metamorphose experiments, and made sure he'd sleep for a very long time," Genesis explained, then paused as he wondered how to express the rest of what he could, or should, say.

"Wait, does that mean he's still alive?" Angeal asked suddenly, making Sephiroth blink and stare, first at Angeal, then at Genesis. "And why do you know all this, anyway?"

With a shrug and a small sigh, the red haired man said, "Well, remember the person who told us about the genetic problem in the first place? This is all information he's found out, and confirmed in most cases. He's not happy with it, but I have to commend his abilities in research and sciences."

"...And this person freely shares these things with you?" Angeal frowned in suspicious confusion.

"Could we back up a bit?" Sephiroth asked quietly, looking a bit out of sorts. The other two looked at their younger friend in concern, but he looked at Genesis and asked, "Is Vincent Valentine still alive?"

"...I guess it depends on your definition of 'alive'," Genesis sighed, dropping his voice low enough to not be overheard by anyone else. "Listen, what was done to him did technically kill him, but he apparently still has his soul and a body to walk around with—but he's defined as 'undead'." Both of the others paled—quite a feat for Sephiroth, who was already nearly white—so he went on quickly, "Not destructively! He doesn't go eating out people's brains or trying to kill them. He's become rather protective of Ed—the one giving me this information—but the situation is a lot more complicated than that."

After taking a few minutes to tell them about Chaos and Omega, and how that applied to Vincent, he added, "Vincent sees himself as a monster poised to destroy the world, and legitimately thinks he's a danger to everyone. He's suffering Ed's presence largely because he couldn't chase him away, but he also found he couldn't just ignore the well-being of someone he sees as a 'child'. Given the chance, I think he'd be a decent father—at least, a way better one than any of us ever had—but him being willing to do so depends a lot on whether Ed can draw him out, make him stop thinking he's a monster. And, he didn't know until last night that he has—probably has, to be fair—a son."

"...How old is the one who found him?" Angeal asked slowly.

"That's...complicated," Genesis chuckled. When the other two gave him expectant looks, he explained, "Literally, he's sixteen. Because of his first actual 'death'—he has Final Attack and Revive—he suppressed or erased his memory of the last six years of his life, so mentally, he's operating as a ten-year-old. Well, a very, very intelligent, shrewd ten-year-old. In terms of his looks, according to the Nibelheim villagers, he's about thirteen."

"...And his information is trust-worthy?" Sephiroth asked with a puzzled frown.

"Very—trust me, I've tested him. What he knows about Materia is no accident, and he understands exactly what's going on around him. He hasn't lost that capability by losing six years of memory, just lost access to actual data he once had," the red haired man shrugged. "There's something else bothering me, but here is neither the time nor the place to discuss it, or I may really wind up on the Turks' hit list. Anyway, I was going to see Shalua again today so we could get furniture for her new place. Did you want to come along?"

"Does she have a home somewhere else you could move furniture from?" Sephiroth asked in practical terms. "It would be a great deal cheaper."

"I'm not sure we can do that, since people apparently have to be authorized by Shinra to go there, and Tseng almost shot me before asking what I was doing there. I was just lucky he was a bit distracted by the other guys who attacked us then. Also, Shalua might not want that—too many bad memories. I'm sure she would have taken everything with her that she really wanted, and I have the last few things from there all three of us would count as a treasure—a diary and small photo album hidden in our mother's room."

"Why would those be a treasure?" the silver haired man asked in confusion, and Angeal and Genesis shared wryly amused expressions.

"It's a record of something precious," Angeal said. "Genesis never had any of those memories with his family, so all he has to know what they were like are the things they left behind. Pictures help a lot that way. Especially if they have notes on the back."

"Only two did," Genesis revealed. "Of course, those were some of the most important notes, but there's another reason these pictures are so important to Shalua and Shelke, too—I mean, since they're pictures of my birth and the time before that, it's things they never knew, either, like what our father looks like."

Both of the others blinked, then Angeal asked, "Would it be alright if we saw them? Or at least one picture of your father?"

Blinking, Genesis nodded and pulled out the album—he still had it on him, like all the other important things he needed—and flipped to a picture with his father wearing shades, pulled it free, and found one of the two pictures where he wasn't wearing them. Opening the book to that page, he set the two photos side-by-side and turned them around to let the other two look at them. Both looked, then looked again and frowned in puzzlement.

"Why do I have the strangest feeling I have seen him before?" Sephiroth asked.

"Yeah, I was about to say that. I can't place it, but I'm sure I've seen him, and not that long ago, either," Angeal agreed.

"You, too?" Genesis asked wryly, and the other two looked at him in surprise. "I'm so sure of it, but again, I just can't seem to place it." He looked at Sephiroth and said, "You can keep those pictures of you, Lucrecia, and Vincent, by the way."

After a pause, Sephiroth gathered them with a nod. "Thank you. If there is any chance Hojo is not my father—well..."

Genesis also gathered his pictures, then asked again, "So, do you want to come see Shalua, or are you busy?"

"I wouldn't mind," Angeal smiled, and Sephiroth nodded.

The three rose, Genesis with Cait Sith in his arms, and headed out into the city. His two friends traded puzzled looks before staring at the robotic cat questioningly, but the red haired man just gave a chuckle and kept walking.


	25. 25-Games

**A/N:** This is the last chapter of the 'Genesis arc'.

Games

As they got to the building where Shalua now lived, Genesis found the manager in the lobby as he directed one man to the outside of the building and another was about to use a squeegee on the inside window, a bucket beside him. The manager saw them and his jaw fell open for a minute as Genesis looked patently amused and his friends looked around with interest, Cait Sith clinging to his shoulder as the robotic cat also peered around curiously.

"Is that a pet?" was the first thing the manager said, however, drawing everyone's eyes to him, except for the window washer and the other man who had just left for the side of the building opposite Shalua's.

"It's a robotic cat made by the head of Shinra's Urban Development Department," Genesis replied.

"Howdy!" the cat added cheerfully. "Nice place ye got here!"

"I see," the manager blinked, giving his head a puzzled scratch. "It doesn't need a litter box, food, or scratching posts?"

"Nope," the red haired man grinned. "That's all right, isn't it?"

"Yes, especially if it's quite happy to talk so everyone knows it's not a real cat. Shalua said something about needing you upstairs first, though, so head on up," the man nodded, turning back to the window washer to say, "When you're done at the front, you'll have to spray-wash the outside windows on both sides."

"Will do," the window washer answered, even as Genesis led the way to the elevator with Sephiroth and Angeal following.

"He is surprisingly easy to handle," Sephiroth commented when they were inside.

Chuckling, the other man agreed, "Considering how well-known we are, yes. Shalua has a surprisingly shrewd eye in more ways than one."

"How do you mean? Didn't you set her up?" Angeal asked. They reached the third floor and stepped out so Genesis could lead the way down the hall.

"Yes, and no. This was the place she wanted, and I just gave her the ability to live in a place which I agree is a good choice," the red haired man answered, then knocked on the door to apartment 317 before turning the knob and pushing the door open. "Shalua, is everything all right?" he called.

"Yes—sort of?" she called back, but sounded perturbed and uncertain.

"Who is that?" someone else asked suspiciously, a grown man.

Blinking, Genesis quickly dropped Cait Sith and hopped through the kitchen and around the corner of the dining room to see the living room. Shalua was in one corner near the balcony door, but there were three other men in the room, one at the balcony doors, one clearly the reason the girl had backed into the corner, and one working quickly on a laptop computer he'd brought with him. The one who had backed her into the corner had turned to face the door, and when he saw Genesis come around the corner, he glared as a sneer lifted one corner of his mouth.

"Figured it was you. Shinra are all the same—sure, give her all this to pay for the sex you get from her," the man said.

Angeal and Sephiroth joined them as Genesis—laughed. Everyone stared at him in shock, even Shalua, until he said, "Now, if that was actually true, something _would_ be wrong, because I'd be committing incest. My real name is Sheridan Rui—Shalua's older brother. You can't possibly tell me I'm not allowed to take care of my sister."

"That's what I _tried_ to tell them!" Shalua spat out. "Idiots!"

The three men, even the one who had been working on the computer, turned to stare at Genesis, and noted his two friends. The one at the computer made a rather constipated face and said, "I don't think it's in our best interests to start a fight right now. That isn't why we came here." He then went back to work.

"They're the enemy!" the first man bellowed.

"You think you can take on SOLDIER's top three and win?" Sephiroth asked with a raised brow. "Considering how much like a hostage-taking this looks, we are already being quite lenient."

Snarling again, the man turned to Shalua and asked, "Brother or not, why are you even helping him? You know whatever deal you made with him won't come to anything!"

"He's already done more to help me find Shelke than _you_ ever did," she glared back at the man. "And no, I _don't_ believe that's because he actually knows what happened to her or had anything to do with it. And that still doesn't give you the right to come barging into my home without permission. I'm not one of your members or anything!"

Suddenly, Genesis' phone rang and he checked it—to see Tseng's number! Quickly, he answered it and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Do you know Reeve contacted me with concerns about your safety at about the same time someone started hacking us from almost the same location?" Tseng asked genially.

At the words, Genesis had to sigh. "You'd better get here quick if you actually want the guy, Tseng." He immediately hit the end button, and just in time, too.

"Traitor! I told you, he's a traitor!" the first man yelled as the other two paled. Their eyes widened as the man jumped at Genesis (though the man working on the computer kept at it), but Sephiroth intercepted and threw him to the ground.

"We cannot be 'traitors' when we were never your allies to begin with—if you somehow thought that, I pity you," the silver haired man commented. "Regardless, if that girl was not here, I would kill you now."

"Don't hesitate on my account," Shalua replied acidly. "Isn't Tseng a Turk?"

"He's after some cyber-terrorists, and found one—right here," Genesis agreed, gazing at the man at the computer. "It won't take them long to get here."

The one at the balcony blinked, then blinked again, and suddenly reached over to grab Shalua and drag her against him as he stood with his back to the balcony doors.

"Hey, let me go!" Shalua growled, voice raised while she struggled, and the man held her tightly—but she froze when a knife blade settled against her neck.

"So, stalemate, then?" the man now holding onto Shalua asked rather genially.

Angeal was about to step forward, but Genesis put his hand in the way and the larger man stopped, his expression confused. Shalua met Genesis' gaze—and blinked in surprise before her expression became a scowl again.

"I suppose so. Sephiroth, keep the other guy pinned down, at least," the red haired man said, a ball of fire slowly forming around his hand.

For a minute, no one moved except the man on the computer, who kept hacking the system, but had the sense to move over to the space left between the man holding Shalua and the balcony doors. "Not long now..." the man muttered, his typing speed increasing. Another couple minutes of silence fell.

"You bastards think you'll get away with this?" the man still pinned down by Sephiroth growled abruptly, suddenly throwing something at his guard's face.

Since the General had Masamune in his hand, he used it to block the object—which caused an explosion of light and sound to erupt, even as the room filled with smoke. Sephiroth, knowing where the man was through years of combat training, spun to strike him, stabbing him through the heart with his blade. The sound of a helicopter nearby reached them.

Suddenly, Shalua yelped, but the light and smoke hadn't cleared yet, so Genesis called, "Shalua, are you okay?"

"Yes, just—what just happened?" she asked. "And how much will it cost to fix all this?" She sounded like she was about to cry.

"Close your eyes and take several deep breaths," Genesis instructed soothingly, taking his own advice.

A moment later, the balcony door opened and much of the smoke was released from the apartment, causing it to cascade over the side of the building and into the garden path below. Everyone took a quick look around, from Tseng at the balcony door to Shalua on her knees a couple feet away from him, to the computer guy sprawled on the floor, shot through the head, and to Genesis, Sephiroth, and Angeal in the dining room, one man speared on Sephiroth's blade. The third of the men who had been there had vanished, the one who had been holding Shalua hostage.

As Tseng leveled his gun at Shalua, the red haired man said, "Don't, Tseng. I'm not going to stand here and let you shoot my sister—she only just escaped from one captor."

Tseng's eyes slid closed and he sighed. "Three for three." The man's dark eyes opened again and turned to look at the red haired man. "I'm not going to be able to keep excusing these coincidences, you know, and I only really can this time because I knew last night you were supposed to visit your sister again today, and there are witnesses to that fact. How did this happen?" He tucked his gun away.

"When I first met Shalua, she was basically out on the streets, and an old man had sort of been looking out for her in exchange for help with his business. He generally takes care of the illnesses and injuries of people who can't go to a hospital or registered doctor. Some of his patients had apparently been members of AVALANCHE, not local Slummers in need of assistance, and they had therefore known about her. When she moved out to this place, they tracked her down as a hostage—probably hoping for a safe-house or some control over me," Genesis explained.

"Why did Reeve know you were in danger?" the Turk asked, head tipped to the side slightly.

"I could hazard a guess and say that's Cait Sith's doing, since Genesis brought him here today for some reason," Angeal commented, turning around to look for the cat. At hearing his name, the robotic cat stepped out from behind the kitchen cupboards to lean against the red haired man's leg and give Tseng a wave.

"...A hedonistic robot. I can't believe Reeve did that..." Tseng sighed.

"How did you know the man was hacking something?" Sephiroth asked as he turned to look at the man sprawled dead behind Shalua.

As though the words made her realize there was a dead body so close to her, she jumped up—and ran to Genesis, crashing into his middle to hug him. "That was so not fair!" she cried in partial anger and partial delayed fear, keeping her face hidden in her brother's chest as he put his arms around her to hug her.

"Someone stole some of Reeve's access codes, and with his system modifications, we get sent signals if someone tries to hack using them," the Turk informed Sephiroth. "That man was using them. Not nearly so well as the one we caught last night, but well enough to be concerning, and proof the first one wasn't the only one to have that data."

"Gives you a new respect for Reeve, doesn't it?" Genesis asked wryly.

"It does," Tseng agreed. "But I can't stay long. Where did the third man go?"

"When the first set off the flash bomb, he bolted, and I think we all lost track of him as he went," Angeal sighed. "I'd have caught him otherwise, but that wasn't like any bomb I've ever seen before."

"No, it wasn't," Tseng agreed. "When it washed over me, my senses went blank as well. Did the flash of light do the same?"

"No, just the smoke," Sephiroth answered. "I am rather glad it was nothing more serious than a flash and smoke bomb combination or it could have killed far too many people right here in Midgar."

With a nod, the Wutain man turned back to the edge of the balcony and said, "Then I'll head out and hand in my report. Try to stay out of trouble for awhile, Genesis, before people stop believing it's coincidence."

"What do _you_ believe?" Genesis asked curiously as the man picked up the hacker's computer.

After a momentary pause, Tseng answered shrewdly, "I believe you know more than you're letting on, but I don't believe you're trying to get yourself in trouble or work against Shinra. As far as that goes, I just think you're an unintentional trigger for something bigger, and to be honest, I think it's gone too far to be stopped. I may not be able to convince the higher-ups of your innocence if too many more of these incidences happen is all I'm saying." He was gone a moment later, jumping off the balcony rail to catch the helicopter landing tread as it headed away.

Silence fell for a minute, then Reeve's voice came from Cait Sith's cranial cavity, asking, "Genesis, how did that man get my codes? The last one—you know that story, right? But how did someone else get them? The first was a one-off."

"No idea, Reeve, but I think Tseng is right and I've become a trigger. Or, well, maybe not me, now that I think about it—Ed," the red haired man sighed.

"Why Ed? I mean, he's wonderfully intelligent and makes some very impressive leaps of logic, but how could he have anything to do with this?" the man at Cait Sith's controls asked.

"I'd have never known about my condition without him, or my birth mother's name. I'd have never met Shalua or started searching for Shelke—or known anything about Deepground. I'd never even have looked into anything about Sephiroth or the Reactors, let alone talked with him about his family or you about the poor quality of our power supply. His presence, his knowledge, his ability to find information, it's...Well, it's all leading to the eventual collapse of our whole system by the sounds of things. All he's really doing is giving us the information to make it as easy a transition as we can, but, well...I guess this—Deepground especially—could be considered birthing pains."

Everyone else in the room choked, and Reeve began to chuckle after a minute. "What, exactly, are you allocating to what part of your analogy?"

"Ed's sending the signals to push, we're the muscles doing the pushing, and the 'baby' is a new society born from the 'mother', or the old society."

"How apt," Angeal suddenly snorted.

"Too true," Sephiroth sighed. "Well, in for a gil...If anything else happens, let us hope we also become targets so some of the concerns about you are waylaid, Genesis."

"No offense, but why is there a cat here, exactly?" Shalua asked suddenly crouching to be at eye level with Cait Sith while the robot stood on his hind feet.

"This is Cait Sith—or at least, this is the Cait Sith designated as '1'. When I started using him to communicate with Reeve, I instinctively treated him like a cat, so he became a hedonist and started wanting to follow me around for attention," Genesis explained. "Reeve is the head of Urban Development. He can watch and talk through Cait Sith, and the robot can also make phone calls in an emergency, but Reeve has said he needs to build new units anyway and I can leave this one with you as a sort of pet and companion. Obviously, he doesn't need things like a litter box or food, so it's really just attention he wants, and if something like this happens again, he can contact me to let me know you're in danger."

The girl actually considered that for a minute before slowly nodding as she said, "Even if I had a PHS, no one would know Cait Sith had contacted anyone. After what happened to Shelke, that might be a good idea. Have you found out any more about her, Genesis?"

"More than I wanted to," he sighed. "Well, no, 'more than' isn't quite the right phrase, it's just really hard to see what Reeve found about Deepground—the group who took Shelke. He just needed Ed's information to start him on the right path."

"Let me see!" she immediately said, standing up.

For a minute, Genesis hesitated, then sighed and nodded, pulling out the sheets as he said, "It's not going to be easy to read, so brace yourself. Also, it's written in invisible ink, so you'll need some light or the counter-ink to make it show." As he passed them to her, he faced Sephiroth and Angeal and told them, "I think you should read them as well, because we're probably going to have to clean up the mess."

They both nodded as the girl left the room to get her own laptop for the backlight, then returned to the room to begin reading. The men watched Shalua's expressions change as she read the first page. It was concerning seeing the horror growing on her face, but she made it through the first, swallowed hard, and passed it to Angeal as she started on the second. Angeal used the light spilling in from the window to read the first and had passed it on to Sephiroth by the time Shalua had read the second and passed it to him so she could move on to the third. Sephiroth took the first one and began reading using the same method as Angeal, but he read slower than the other two, committing the words to memory as he read. The system progressed right through to the eighth page, but Sephiroth was only on page four himself when Shalua and Angeal had finished reading the rest.

"That's...a lot to take in," Angeal commented, looking disturbed. "And Reeve managed to get all that without getting caught? Then again, it was his system, so he has free access."

"No, not really. I had to hack my own program to get that—others have clearly been messing with it. Some of that will stop for awhile once the replacement programming is set in place, though, because it'll take out all the additions and changes which weren't supposed to be there until someone manually sets them back into place," Reeve said through Cait Sith. "And believe me, I'd like to see them stopped."

"But how does that help if we can't find the entrance?" Shalua asked, fists clenched. "Shelke—! We can't help her—!"

"If they are coming out of hiding, we still have a chance," Sephiroth commented, still reading intently, now on the fifth page. "It seems something triggered them to begin emerging, as they attacked Genesis at the Rui home, yes?"

Silence fell for a minute, then the girl asked, "Why is someone like you working against Shinra? I mean, you're their poster boy, and you always gave the impression you were absolutely loyal to them."

The silver haired man turned to look at the fourteen-year-old as he said, "I do not see this as 'working against' Shinra, I see it as removing a threat to their good name. Or, well, as good a name as it can be. I do not agree with them kidnapping and experimenting on people, and if what goes on in Deepground ever gets out, Shinra will be destroyed. I—no, _we_ are Shinra employees, Shalua, even your brother. We worked hard to get to where we are, and we do not want to lose the very thing we gave our lives to, so we will work to protect it. Protecting it does not mean covering up wrong-doing, it means dealing with it. Better to fix the problem than to ignore it."

"So why did my brother let the hacker keep working and fake my being a hostage to make sure the hacker could finish what he was doing?" the girl asked dryly.

Angeal sighed in something like exasperation as Sephiroth raised a brow and said, "He did it because the more 'problems' come to light, the easier it is for people to find out and to demand change, regardless of the stranglehold Shinra has on the media. As for AVALANCHE, they currently aren't so much of a threat that we need to react to them more than we have. That may change later, but until then, we have no orders concerning them and they are the business of the Turks." He then went back to reading.

Her gaze went to Genesis questioningly, and he gave her a grin. "The two who realized what I was doing knew they couldn't both survive, but they preferred to take their chances than to get nothing through. Also, for some reason, terrorists are being kept hidden from the population, and that's not really a good thing, either—incidences like this may make it known that the problem is bigger than just the President. We aren't fools, and the President is often blind—too blind—to things which are wrong, things which will most likely destroy him, as well. If we don't shove those things in his face in a way he can't ignore, they won't change _at all_ , let alone for the better."

"...Aren't Turks supposed to know when they're being set up?" she asked with a puzzled frown.

"Yes, and Tseng _did_ say he knows Genesis knows more than he's saying," Angeal agreed. She looked at him sharply. "The Turks walk a very fine line, and I don't envy them that line. I know Tseng himself is doing a few things against his orders, and I'd bet Veld, the leader of the Turks, knows he's doing it, but as long as they can toe that line, they can get away with little cheats here and there. Don't think they agree any more with Shinra's underhanded cruelty than we do, because they don't. They just have leashes tight enough to choke a Custom Sweeper."

"Oh, ouch, that's tight..." Shalua muttered, thinking of how choking a machine like the Sweeper should have been impossible. After a moment, she had the sense to ask, "Are we actually going to be able to shop today?"

"First, was there anything you wanted from your old home?" Genesis asked.

"Well, maybe some clothes or things, but I don't even think the furniture can be taken out of there. But I don't really want it, anyway," the girl answered.

"If you still feel up to going when Sephiroth is done reading, we'll do the shopping then, all right?" her older brother asked. "If not, it'll have to wait a day or two."

"...Fine, I guess so. Why does it take him so long to read?"

"He's committing it to memory. While Genesis and I may need to refer back to those papers for details, by the time he's done, he won't have to," Angeal told her.

She nodded and turned to Cait Sith, asking, "Want to see the place, then?"

"Ye bet I do!" the cat agreed happily, so she showed him around.


	26. 26-End of Jenova

**A/N:** The next 6 chapters have a lot of perspective jumps to cover everything—Ed, Genesis, Sephiroth, and Angeal all have parts. I suppose these would actually still be part of the 'Genesis arc' on a technicality, but since they aren't purely his perspective...

I love Ed's gall in this chapter, especially with the Materia shard! :D Obviously, that means we're back to Ed for a bit, then there's some jumping back and forth to cover the necessary data.

Also, since I think it would be prudent to have this note here because the same reviewer had an issue with this MULTIPLE times *cough*DemonRaily*cough*...When Ed has Summon shards in contact with him, they become privy to what he's thinking (no, not his subconscious, his actual thoughts, regardless of whether they're directed at the Summon or not), and Shiva, Titan, and Ramuh have all shown that fact. As such, Ed knows he has to restrict his thoughts and just not directly think certain things while in contact with a Summon unless he wants them to know what he really thinks about something. He's also got a good poker face and is fantastic at bullshitting others, so take his agreement with the particular entity in the above-noted Materia shard as a means to calm it down so it starts thinking rationally again—and because he has to keep the shard in direct contact with him for the agreement to work, he can't think about his own personal view of the matter.

End of Jenova

Edward felt a little bad about tricking everyone, especially Cloud and Rayne, but he knew he had to. He was almost done in the Manor's library, anyway, and after the conversation with Tseng (and Veld, who had been almost as bad as Tseng), he was more than aware of the trouble he would cause if there was a direct connection. As such, he 'left' town to head north towards Rocket Town two days after said conversation, then doubled back once everyone had left so he could hide in the Manor. He'd been given about five days of travel food (the estimated time it would take to walk to Rocket Town from Nibelheim), which was more than enough for him to stay at the Manor for a couple days, then take the two-day trek back to Cosmo Canyon.

When he got to the Manor, he saw Vincent standing at the upper foyer's hall rail, watching him silently and with some concern. "Sorry I'm late. I had to make them think I'd left town to head north."

"Why?" the man asked, brow furrowing in confusion.

"Well—because once I'm done here, I'm burning this place down, starting with the library and labs. (1) I've gotten everything out of here I can, and I'm not going to just let you hide away in here—if you really insist on hiding, you'll have to find somewhere else. This information is too dangerous to leave lying around," the boy explained, meeting his gaze evenly.

"You would take away the only home, the only refuge, I have left?" For all there wasn't much, if any, emotion in his voice, Ed knew he wasn't happy, even felt betrayed.

"You have a son, Vincent," Ed answered pointedly. "You have a home if you want it, and this place—this is a prison, not a refuge. It's a crutch you're using on purpose to keep hurting yourself, reliving everything bad in your past, instead of letting all that crap go and moving forward with what you _can_ do right now. You couldn't stop Lucrecia—but you _can_ be a father to your son. This place isn't good for anything anymore. Not even for you. If the only way to get you out of here is to destroy it, then that's what I'll do."

"Do you actually have that right? You have a home to go back to yourself," Vincent returned, eyes showing some hurt, and possibly some fear.

"Do I? I can't remember if I do," the boy said. "And I'm not so attached to a bloody _house_ that I'd let it hold me back, I'd even burn down my own home to make sure I couldn't do what you're doing."

"I could stop you."

"There were a lot of things you 'could' have stopped me from doing, but didn't."

Silence followed for a minute before Vincent walked away, heading for the tunnel leading down to the basement. Ed quickly followed him, heading back to the lab and library to finish reading and gathering the data he wanted to keep. It was a little upsetting to burn the books, but most of those weren't any good for anything, anyway. For the few good ones, he'd stuck them in the bag he'd inherited from Rayne and Cloud, and he also had the Materia shards Lucrecia had recorded her data about Chaos and Omega Theory on. No one would be surprised to see him with Materia, anyway.

Vincent had disappeared into 'his' room—the one with all the coffins—so he went back to the paperwork he'd left behind the day before. Everything else was stored in his mind, and he had no intention of committing it to paper, otherwise—it would happen again. Of all the things he'd come to understand by reading it all, it was that giving people negative ideas was dangerous because they had a bad habit of compounding any negative or evil acts they 'witnessed'. Maybe _he_ wouldn't misuse that knowledge, but leaving it for someone else to find, someone even just a little like Hojo...It was dangerous indeed.

As he switched from one paper to another, a fairly large fragment of something blue dropped onto his paper, but before he could touch it, Vincent said, "Don't try touching it carelessly. I saw what happened when you touched the ones Lucrecia made, and I dare-say you'll get a similar or same result from that."

"...So what is it?" Ed asked curiously. "Besides probably a Materia shard?"

"There was—a large piece of Materia found. It was supposed to be for some kind of Summoned being, but the being was too powerful and too destructive to control, so its shard was broken into four with a trigger shard resembling a Summon Materia. That's one of the shards the large one was broken into," the man explained. "It can't stay here if you truly intend to burn the place down, otherwise they'll find it and probably seek out the other pieces."

"Do you know where the rest are?" Ed blinked as he eyed the shard.

"No. Do you still intend to destroy Jenova?"

"Yes. Absolutely. Genesis and Angeal will be fine, so there's no reason to keep her around to cause more harm."

"...How do you propose to destroy a parasite so invasive?"

"By blowing it up from the inside out—sort of super-heating it."

The man fell silent, but didn't move, so Ed cautiously reached out and placed the tip of his pointer finger on the fragmented Materia Vincent had put in front of him.

It was complete chaos. There were arrays, broken and damaged, and there was a mind, thoughts and feelings, all swirling in pain and anger, wanting to destroy, wanting to tear apart the humans who had torn it apart. Parasites, humans were just that and nothing more to it. It was brutal, but its method would at least have been fast and as painless as it was possible to be, and so be it if it triggered Chaos to awaken.

Drawing in a deep breath, Ed mentally shouted at the being, _:Will you calm down and shut up already?:_

The entity fell silent in shock, causing the boy to breathe a sigh of relief, then asked acidicly, _:Who are you to make demands of me?:_

 _:A Sentinel, or so Odin called me. And you were working yourself into a frenzy so I couldn't even understand you. Tell me, who are you, exactly? With only part of your Materia, I can't tell who you are or what your affinity is, let alone anything else.:_

To his surprise, the reply wasn't immediate, but only after a pause, and the tone had turned wary when it answered, _:I am called Zirconaide, a Weapon meant to maintain control of populations. Animal, human, plant—when any one becomes too large, it becomes a parasite and requires pruning to restore balance. I was meant to maintain that balance. I was meant to summon myself at my intended moment.:_ (2)

 _:Zirconaide, when is your intended moment?:_

 _:It has already passed, Sentinel, and I could not react to it. Several species have now fallen out of balance. The result to unleash me now would be devastating. Then again, that may not be a bad thing by the state of the world...and Chaos' presence.:_

 _:I can understand your sentiment, but there are humans working to fix it themselves. Will you give us a chance to prove ourselves, then judge your destructive force on the success we have?:_

 _:You mean to say you do not object to my act of maintenance, merely to the exact extent of it?:_

 _:Yes. The world is over-populated for its size. Many of those people are consumed by greed and have no sense of self-preservation, but some have seen it and will—or already are—working towards solutions. It doesn't change the state and size of the current population, and eventually, that will have to be addressed. We just want to be able to save as many of the good people as we can before you destroy the ones who are hurting the world.:_

 _:And the Calamity?:_

 _:The...Calamity?:_

 _:Jeh-nova, the Calamity from the Skies. Have you never heard of it?:_

 _:No, now that you've said Jenova, I know it. In a day or two, I'll be going to where she is and destroying her central brain. Any of what remains of her scattered cells shouldn't be a problem with the controlling force dealt with.:_

 _:You would leave that parasite to roam free?:_ Zirconaide hissed at him.

 _:Is it right to punish the same people who are trying to fix the world for something done to them against their will? Because yes, it_ is _people who were forcibly given Jenova's cells who are trying to save this world. They are not her, and with her brain destroyed, they can do what_ they _want, not what_ she _wants. I'm betting everything on them because they've picked it for themselves. Don't punish them for her actions.:_

Zirconaide fell silent, the sense from the being entirely wary as it assessed that. Finally, it said, _:I do not agree with the 'wisdom' you hold by, yet it seems in keeping with the Cetra and the Sentinels of their people. I will watch, I will wait, and I will judge. You will need to find my fragments and convince them of the same, each independently, however. Our judgment shall be our own, and you will not know it until you summon us to our true form. Will you have the courage to take that risk when the time comes, or will you refute your own claim of allowing me my task?:_

 _:Hmm, I don't see that I'd back down on that, but if you won't do it fairly, I'll find someone else who will. I'm not a fool, and I'll have safeguards in place to protect the same ones saving the world, whether from you or from the humans who literally have become parasites. Can you tell when Jenova cells are near you?:_

 _:Yes. Neither you nor Chaos possess them. Jenova is nearby, however, and that is worrisome.:_

 _:Like I said, I'm going to destroy her soon. Can you tell where your other fragments are compared to you?:_

 _:Somewhat. The nearer you are to one, the easier it will be for me to find it. They should not have been too far from here.:_

 _:Huh. I'll look for them. Now, just don't work yourself into a frenzy again.:_

The sense from Zirconaide was derisive at the comment, but Ed broke his contact with it and heaved a sigh as he looked tiredly up at Vincent. "You're sure you don't know where the others are?"

"No," the man answered in mild concern.

"Then I'm going back to my paperwork. Thanks."

CA

Over the next two days, Ed worked on finishing up what he needed while Vincent kept interrupting him to make him eat. By the time they were done, Ed had found the rest of what he needed—a supply of ink, charcoal, and matches. And oil. Once he had finished his actual paperwork and had gathered the things he wanted, he waited until Vincent left the area for awhile to throw the oil all over the books and reports. It was then his turn to go up to the Manor so he could see how late it was, as it merely being 'after dark' at that time of year probably meant the townspeople were still awake.

It was after dark, but only just after dinner, so he pulled on a coat he'd found in one of the rooms in the Manor and climbed up to the roof, where he sat and observed the lights of the town, just waiting for the lights to go out.

While he was there, Vincent joined him. They sat in silence for a bit before the man asked, "You're really going to go through with it, aren't you?"

"Of course," Ed agreed. "I'm just waiting for the lights to go out so they have as little time to react as possible. And so we'll have time to finish things at the Reactor."

"Didn't you say your usual abilities don't work close to Reactors? How will you do anything to Jenova if you don't even have attack Materia on you?"

"I have an idea about that, though exactly how it'll work will depend on what we find there. It's Mako I'll need to make it work, and we'll be in a Reactor, so...And anyway, what makes you so sure I don't have any attack Materia on me? I have Odin, after all."

For a moment, Vincent was silent, then inclined his head at the point. "Once this place—is on fire," he began, sounding strained as he said the last three words, and had to pause to take a deep breath before speaking again. "I'll take us up to the Reactor. My method may be a little rough, but it will be much faster than walking. The time that will spare us will ensure we don't get caught, even if some of the workers head up there to check on it after seeing the Manor on fire."

Ed reached over and rested his hand on the man's shoulder. "That would be great. Thanks, Vincent. You're really great when you start moving forward, you know."

Vincent shifted in something like embarrassment, but said, "You would be far too careless without me."

The boy chuckled and let his hand drop as he turned his full attention back to the lights in the distance. One by one, they began going out. When only a few were left on, Ed rose and said, "It's time."

Both went back inside and to the basement, where Ed went to the very back and lit a match, holding it to the books on one shelf. Vincent hissed in concern as fire raced along the books, following the lines of the oil Ed had thrown on them earlier—and making sure every book was on fire. Ed bolted for the library hall as flames chased him, and Vincent also found himself racing against the flames to get out of the hall and the lab. The flames had already begun spreading through the lab as they bolted from the hall, and Ed snatched the Sahagin's spear from where he'd left it by the door of the lab as they ran into the cavern hall.

Smoke billowed along the hall's ceiling, slowly filling it, and Ed knew the danger of breathing in too much smoke. Still, he stopped by Vincent's coffin room to light the coffins on fire, using two matches to do so. Vincent winced at seeing them burning, but said nothing, just waited for him to finish up so they could head up the spiral stair. At the bottom of the smoke-filled 'tower', Ed dropped a burning match, and the stairs caught on fire. It was a slow creep, and it gave them the time to run up to the top, where they left the door in the rock wall open and even opened a few of the windows in the room beyond so the fire would have more access to oxygen.

"Let me take some of the matches so we can spread the fire here faster," Vincent said suddenly, watching the smoke billowing from the trap door and pouring out the open windows, the room filled with smoke haze. "I may be fine in this smoke because I don't breathe, but you..."

Ed paused as he drew in a deep breath—and promptly started coughing. When he stopped, he blinked at the concerned man, then nodded and took out a second set of matches, offering it to Vincent. "Take that and work on lighting the top floor on fire—smoke rises, so it'll be better for me to work on the first."

Vincent took it and nodded, quickly opening it and lighting a match as Ed ran from the room to get away from the smoke. In practical terms, starting at the back of the house was the best option, so he was about to start in the piano room, only to find the fire from the library below eating through the floor. He only lit a couple fires in the room, then headed to the spare rooms on the side across the house from there, working his way forward. Upstairs, Vincent was doing something similar as a roaring sound filled the area and Ed found the room immediately left of the front door also already burning, as it was above the lab.

Finally, Vincent joined him in the foyer, where they lit and randomly threw down their remaining matches, and quickly ran outside. From there, they turned to watch the Manor catch on fire for a few minutes, but as Ed saw an image of a different, smaller house overlapping the one in front of him, alarms began ringing in the village. Vincent paused for only a moment before wrapping an arm around Ed's waist and jumping to the trees, then up the mountain peaks. In his arms, the boy groaned and held a hand to his head like he was dizzy, caught one last glimpse of the burning Manor, and snorted before bursting out laughing.

No matter how alarmed the man was, he had to keep moving, not realizing just what had happened to the teen. For his part, Ed had just remembered everything, and the return of his memory had bloody _hurt_. The burning Manor had reminded him of burning down his own home, and he couldn't ignore it anymore, couldn't pretend or hide anymore. Everything about the Philosopher's Stone, Al, Father, and his first time dying all came back to him, and while he'd had time to adapt to having died, he also had to re-adapt to the sudden influx of information and memory.

Now he understood. With the new information from Shinra Manor—which he all still had—he knew a lot more than he wanted to. On the other hand, that information was critical to the survival of the world. The only thing still missing was how he'd gone from transmuting Father in Amestris to laying flat on his back outside Fort Condor. Now, he also knew why he'd been obsessed with taking the branch from the tree in the Mako spring, as it would make the hilt of the sword he'd have crafted once he had all the parts. It also explained some of the other things he had reacted to.

Finally, Vincent stopped outside the Reactor and set him on his feet, asking, "Are you okay?" He sounded more concerned than Ed had ever heard him.

"Yes," the teen answered. "I got my memory back. As it turns out, I actually burned down my own home, years ago now. There's no place to go back to, so all I can do is move forward. Perversely, I have all the memories of the ten-year-old mind you've been taking care of, so I sort of got information overload with all of it. But now I also know exactly what's going on and what to do about it."

"And your intent to destroy Jenova is still intact?" the man asked.

"Of course," he agreed, turning to face the Reactor—only for a huge, green lizard with large fangs, claws, and bat-like wings to land in front of them, roaring in a furious challenge.

"A Dragon!" Vincent said, reaching out to grip the sixteen-year-old's shoulder.

"Awesome!" Edward grinned, pushing the man's hand away and pulling the gun from his belt to offer it to the man. "Don't worry about me, I've fought worse."

"...Worse..." the man blinked, automatically grasping the gun's grip and aiming at the monster in front of them.

Ed shot forward with the spear in his hand, dodging its claws and flames by bending, dipping, jumping, and rolling, keeping it distracted. Most of his attacks with a sub-standard spear did it very little harm, but Vincent proved his sniping skill as he took out both of the Dragon's eyes in short order. In its blindness, it began thrashing wildly, so the blond teen shot at it and shoved the spear into its open mouth just after it had finished spitting out flames. The spear managed to pierce right into its brain, causing it to collapse as its thrashing began weakening.

Discarding the spear, Ed faced Vincent and said, "See, I can handle myself just fine. I'm a lot better at fighting now that I'm sixteen instead of ten, you know."

"...That actually worries me more..." the man replied, eying the Dragon and the discarded spear sticking out of its mouth.

Laughing, Ed hopped up to the Reactor door and headed inside, eying the Mako pods warily before looking in one. Vincent joined him inside, watching in concern while he looked around the pods, then went up to the door labeled 'J-E-N-O-V-A'. While he very much wanted to destroy this lab room, he didn't want to destroy the Reactor itself, since the town still needed it and he didn't want to take away their power supply just as winter was due to set in. Knowing how the Materia functioned—intimately—also told him what he had to do to destroy the experimental results and Jenova, so he turned to face Vincent and said, "Either you'll have to step outside and wait for me, or stay inside the circle I'm going to operate everything else from. In the meantime, I'm going to get that door open so I can include her in the destruction."

Vincent watched him closely as the younger man used charcoal to draw a circle with many strange markings in it around the locking mechanism for Jenova's 'room', and stared in shock as he drew the fractured shard. Both circle and shard glowed, and the lock failed, allowing the door to open. The blond pulled out a bottle of ink, and he felt a sense of pure puzzlement when the teen dumped it on the floor, then used the charcoal to draw another circle on the floor slightly overlapping the ink. When Ed touched the second with the fractured shard in hand, the ink lit up and began spreading over everything in the entire experimental facility, including Jenova's tank and room. It even formed a unique circle around Ed, with many inter-connecting circles around the room. It was dizzying to look at.

When Ed looked up at him, he made his choice and stepped into the circle with the boy, who then activated all of the new circles which had formed around the room with the ink he'd directed to its place. It was fascinating to watch them light up like dominos to spread across the room, but what happened next shocked him.

The room turned into an explosives test room, waves of something bombarding the barrier of their circle and bouncing back to strike the pods from all sides. The pods began cracking and breaking apart, bits of biological matter staining them, and the deformed beings inside were bursting similarly. The blood bubbled, boiled, and eventually burnt black and shriveled from whatever the waves were. It was an explosive mess, and was so thorough there was nothing left of biological matter by the time it was done. He was horrified at how clinical Ed was about it.

"It's done. Let's head to Cosmo Canyon," Ed sighed, then apparently passed out.

Vincent, wary as he was of the teen, still picked him up and carried him out of the Reactor lab remains, heading south and marveling both at the teen's abilities and the fact that the damage to the Reactor had been restricted to the one room and Jenova's chamber.

 **Notes:**

(1) I never understood why no one ever thought to do this in the FFVII story, since it would have taken care of several problems much sooner, but...At least I can have Ed take this route, since he's done things like this before. Of course, Vincent going along with it is me playing on his humanity and desire for companionship now that he's had Ed's company for a month. Basically, he's torn between wanting to stay and wanting to go back out into the world, so just lets Ed make the decision for him.

(2) Zirconaide becomes one of the key enemies in Before Crisis thanks to Fuhito, but if Fuhito hadn't been the one controlling and summoning it, I don't think the result would be the same. Of course, there's always potential for the result to be worse, but it could also be better, and which way things will go will show up MUCH later in the story (at some point in the part 2's). From what I understand of the locations the shards were found in, the Manor would have had one still present if AVALANCHE hadn't yet gone to gather them, which they haven't yet done. Ed didn't find it himself because it was hidden in the main building and he's been spending all his time in the basement.

NO, Ed doesn't intend to just let Zirconaide kill a bunch of people who 'aren't amongst the chosen ones.' As he tells the first shard, he would have a plan in place if they weren't going to judge people fairly, and his definition of 'fairly' is as limited a number of deaths as possible. How this will turn out won't actually come into play until part 2.


	27. 27-Planning Meetings

Planning Meetings

Three days after the incident at Shalua's, Genesis woke to his PHS ringing, so opened it to check the number—and blinked stupidly at it for a few rings before answering it with, "Well, I'm impressed. You're calling me this time."

"Yeah, well...I finally remembered how," Ed's wry voice agreed. "Anyway, as far as the townspeople are concerned, I left Nibelheim a few days ago, heading north towards Rocket Town. In reality, I only just left last night. Vincent travels fast, though, and I passed out after exhausting my energy last night, so we're already at the river south to Cosmo Canyon. I don't think I'll stay at the town for long, but maybe a few days while I work out a couple more things. I give you about a week before I'll be back at Costa del Sol."

"...Your memory is back?" Genesis asked stupidly, still half-asleep.

"Yup. Thanks for all your help, Genesis," Ed told him. "Have you confirmed whether the transfusion fixed your problem?"

"Wha—oh, yes. Angeal and I went back to the doctor two days ago, and the damage was almost completely gone already. Well, it was gone completely in Angeal, but he wasn't in condition as bad as mine, so I sort of expected that. We'll be just fine, and you were right. Thank you." He then paused and his eyes widened as he asked happily, "You remember the last month?"

"Sure do. I got memory overload from getting my own memories back, though."

Since the young man sounded amused, Genesis chuckled and said, "That's actually great news. I found more on Deepground you'll need to know, then all we really need to do is find the entrance to their base—but it'll be good for you to know the whole story you're working with, not just part of it."

"Yes. Oddly enough, as I am now, the Holy Hell Veld and Tseng put me through over what I knew about Deepground actually intrigues me rather than how I reacted to it back then. They're definitely formidable."

"Too true," the red haired man agreed. "Very well...Will Vincent be joining you?"

"I guess so. Apparently, my actual skills as a sixteen-year-old scare him more than my skills as a ten-year-old, so he doesn't feel comfortable leaving me on my own. And, I finally met a Dragon!"

At the good cheer and excitement in Ed's voice, Genesis chuckled and sat up in bed as he said, "Well, at least you got to see one before you left, so that's something. Are you doing okay after remembering your own death?"

Ed paused, then sighed and said, "I can deal with it now, but...I don't have any huge desire to go through that again. I'm sure not going to become careless—no more than normal, at least—now that I know I'll live anyway."

"That's the conclusion we all come to. Death is never a pleasant experience. It also gives you an odd respect for those who died and stayed dead."

"...Well...for the ones who stayed dead. For me...I realize now exactly what I did to my brother. If only I hadn't been such a fool back then..."

"What you did to your brother?" Genesis asked in confusion, never having heard about a brother before.

"Well...I nearly killed him, and wound up effectively sticking him in an isolation tank for five years or so. Back then, I thought it was the right thing to do, but now I'm not so sure that was the way to do things..." Ed sighed a bit tiredly.

"...'Back then' is quite awhile ago, isn't it?"

"...Yes."

"Then move forward. You can't change what you did, so accept it and move forward, and don't make the same mistakes again. You still have _your_ life to live."

"Heh...That's almost the same thing Rude told me once."

"He's right. But wait—he hates talking. How could he have ever said something that takes more than four words to say?"

"On occasion, if he really thinks he needs to, he'll say more to me. Others, I don't know. That particular speech was the longest he ever gave me, and it pretty much downed me the next day while I tried to sort it out and take it to heart."

Genesis chuckled at the words and checked the time—he was actually late for breakfast now. "I have to go get some food, but if you think Vincent will join you in Costa del Sol, I'm pretty sure I can convince Sephiroth, Angeal, and Shalua to join me for my vacation. I would like for them—Sephiroth and Vincent—to meet."

"Sure thing," Ed agreed. "As long as he keeps up the way he has been and Hojo doesn't see him—it's all good."

Genesis shook his head with a grin, then said, "So, I'll see you in about a week, then. Have a good trip, and I look forward to meeting you in person."

"Same. See you then."

They both hung up and the red haired man rushed to get ready for the day. If he recalled correctly, Angeal had just gotten back last night from a mission (assuming he was on schedule), and Sephiroth, Angeal, and he were supposed to have breakfast together. Sephiroth would certainly be wondering where he was, so once cleaned up and dressed, he practically ran down to the cafeteria. Sure enough, they were both there and looking a little concerned, so he stopped by the table they were at for a moment to let them know he was fine and would join them once he had his food.

Finally, when Genesis was back at the table and seated so he could eat, Sephiroth asked, "So, what kept you?"

"I guess I over-slept, and was actually woken by a call from Ed. He's got his memory back and is heading to Cosmo Canyon right now, and figures he'll be back to Costa del Sol in about a week," Genesis explained between bites of food. The other two gave him curious looks, so he added, "We made arrangements to meet when he finished at the Canyon way back before he lost his memory, so—it's time to ask for my vacation now." He grinned at that, then offered, "Care to join me? Apparently, he managed to convince Vincent to join him."

Sephiroth's lips quirked at the news, then he nodded. "I have not asked for leave in about three years, so I doubt they could actually say no. Also, we may wish to revisit the doctor so we can prepare him to test mine and Vincent's blood."

"Does Vincent even _have_ blood anymore?" Genesis asked curiously. The other two blinked at him, so he shrugged and faced Angeal to ask, "You?"

"I'm about due for a month's worth, myself," the black haired man agreed. "Also, the new Seconds have some interesting folks this time around, and a vacation right now gives me the chance to review what I've seen of them to decide if I want to mentor one."

"Of course, for people like us, Costa del Sol is probably the _worst_ place to try to go for a vacation," Sephiroth commented in slight amusement. "SOLDIERs and Turks who go there tend to wind up with working vacations at best." (1)

Genesis chuckled and said, "Which should suit us just fine so we don't get too bored." The other two chuckled as well.

"We shall visit Director Lazard after breakfast, then," Sephiroth said, and got nods of agreement from the other two.

"Oh, right," Genesis suddenly blinked, remembering that he needed one more confirmation, and pulled out his PHS, finding Shalua's new number for the PHS they'd gotten her the other day and letting it dial.

"Hey Genesis, what's up?" the girl asked with a yawn.

"Did I wake you?" he asked in amusement.

"No, I was just getting my breakfast. What's the matter?"

"Nothing's the matter. Would you like to visit Costa del Sol in about a week?"

He heard a splash and 'clink' from the other end of the line before Shalua asked, "Why are you asking? And why are you thinking about that instead of Shelke?"

"I had made arrangements to meet Ed, and he's finally given me word on when he'll be there—and Shalua, Ed is one of my key sources of information in finding and saving Shelke. I'm intending to 'take a vacation' with Angeal and Sephiroth as well, and wanted to know if you'd like to join me. We'll probably be there for about a month. Though, I can't promise it'll be a completely relaxing vacation."

"I guess, if it's someone who has helped with finding Shelke, I can live with that...But if it's not relaxing, how can you call it a vacation?" she returned, clearly glaring.

"Well, the intent is to go and relax and have fun, but there's this trend that if Turks and SOLDIERs vacation at Costa del Sol, it winds up turning into a working vacation, instead, just because—well, things just happen that way. I've never heard of an exception, though some wind up in worse messes there than others, so..."

After a moment, she started laughing as she asked, "And _how_ many Turks and SOLDIERs will be there if you go?"

"Um...the three of us, and a current Turk, a former Turk, and a—prospective Turk." Across from him, Sephiroth and Angeal turned to give each other raised brows.

"And you think nothing—or at least, nothing serious—will happen?" Shalua chuckled as Genesis blinked and gave a wry grin. "This I've just _got_ to see!"

"So, that's a yes?"

"Yes, just let me know when we're leaving. Thanks!"

"Not a problem, Shalua. Have a great day, and I'll let you know once I know when our departure is."

"Yup, bye."

He hung up and looked at his two friends as he commented, "She has a point. Gather six of us in Costa del Sol, and with our track record, something pretty serious will happen. Both because of the people involved and because it's Costa del Sol, you know? She's coming along just to see what kind of mess we manage to get into."

Angeal laughed as Sephiroth smiled faintly, and the black haired man said, "Yes, I suppose that's one way to look at it. Ready to go see Lazard?"

"Yeah," Genesis agreed as he shoved the last bite of his food in his mouth.

The three quickly returned their trays and headed up to the Director's office, which was on the fifty-first floor.

When they walked into the blond haired, blue eyed man's office, he blinked at them in surprise and asked, "What can I do for you, gentlemen?" His looks were quite similar to Rufus Shinra's but he wore white pants and a navy blue, pin-striped jacket to offset his blond hair. His glasses and age (he was in his mid-twenties) were the main differences between him and the President's son.

"We are all due for leave," Sephiroth stated, taking the lead. When Lazard nodded almost warily, he said, "We would like to take ours starting sometime this week, and all at the same time. We have things we want to do."

Lazard's eyes moved to Genesis and Angeal, who both nodded, which caused him to sigh and examine the list of recent missions he'd just gotten in, the basics of which he had on a portable computer 'tablet', a recent design of Reeve's. After a pause, he looked back up at the three young men and said, "I don't object to your request for leave, but there are three critical missions which need to be done before I can authorize you to go."

"But—" Genesis began, but stopped as the man held up a hand in the 'wait' position.

"These are all estimated to be short missions, and no one but the three of you qualify to take them," the man said, turning to his computer to pull up the complete mission data for each of the three. "These are the three. Two are estimated to last twenty-four hours or less, but you can't leave until tomorrow when the flights are scheduled to take you to your destinations. The last is estimated to take forty-two hours and you could leave today within two hours of accepting the mission. I would recommend Commander Hewley take one of the shorter ones so he can rest today after his last mission. Assuming none of these have extenuating circumstances which cause them to go over their estimated time, you'd be officially free in about three days. I trust that's acceptable?"

The three traded looks, then Angeal said, "Well, let's see the full data on them."

Lazard pulled one mission to the front of the screen and turned it to face them as he briefed them on additional data he had. When he and the three men had finished with the first one, he repeated the process with the second and third ones, then offered the three time to discuss which ones they'd take. Given how they were all single-person missions, it was clear they were doing things meant to be kept on the sly, or as much on the sly as they could be kept, meaning the Company didn't want to worry people. The fact that only one person could go on them was why only the three of them qualified.

Rather than them taking time to confer, Sephiroth said, "I will take the longer one at the Mythril Mine. Caves do not bother me in the slightest, and it looks as though I will have to head into those tunnels to clear things out, right to the depths. Also, if anything collapses, I am the most likely to know it before I get caught in a trap."

"I'll go to Mideel, since that one looks like a monster—or group of monsters—which are heavily magic-based," Genesis added. "Why we even know anything's wrong there puzzles me, though, because Shinra doesn't own that area and doesn't care."

"That's not exactly true," Lazard answered Genesis. "Shinra actually _does_ hold the rights to that land, but have never exercised them, and the Turks have a member from there, one of their top sharp-shooters. This mission request probably came through her." He then looked at Angeal and asked, "And you agree with the two the General and Commander Rhapsodos have taken?"

"Of course, and I agree with them. I'll go see what I can do in Modeoheim," Angeal answered, confirming his acceptance of the remaining mission.

"Very well. I'll list each of your names and forward the mission files to you. You may as well stay here, General, unless there's a particular time you would prefer to leave?" Lazard agreed, turning his computer back to him so he could list the missions as 'accepted' and place the names of the three by each mission.

"As long as they have time to prepare meals for me, I am not particular," the silver haired man answered.

"Two hours, then. I'll give you the folder momentarily so you can go prepare. Commanders Rhapsodos and Hewley, report back after lunch to get yours—I have one other mission to allocate a pair of Firsts to, and their departure time comes before yours, so I have to see to that before finishing up your mission files," Lazard explained.

"Very well," Angeal agreed, and he and Genesis left the room.

As Lazard found the file folder Sephiroth needed in the ones on his desk, he asked, "I know you three are friends, but what brought this on?"

"Apparently, Genesis made friends with a prospective Turk and wants us to meet him, amongst some other things," Sephiroth answered in mild amusement.

Lazard had to chuckle at that as he pulled the file out. "None of you make friends easily, so—I suppose that's something of an event for the three of you. Take note, Sephiroth, that some areas of the Mythril Mine have shifted and aren't where they used to be. No one's been able to scout since the quake, but the main path through to the other side is intact, and you'll have to work your way down. Getting back up will be the hard part."

Sephiroth took the file and said, "I am aware of the dangers and not terribly concerned at the moment. I will judge for myself if it is actually worth going somewhere I may not be able to get back from, but chances are that if I could not return to the side people use, the monsters deeper in likely are unable to reach that side, either."

"True, but still, be careful," Lazard told him, then waved him away. "Remember, two hours until departure. You're not going far, so you'll be taking a military ground vehicle; the type depends on what's available, but they'll go from smallest to largest. I hope you still know how to ride a motorcycle."

The silver haired man gave a faint smile of amusement, then let himself out.

CA

"Are you ever going to tell me what made you lose your memory in the _first_ place?" Vincent asked of the young man walking easily beside him. They had crossed the river and were already nearly to the desert area marking Cosmo Canyon's northern border.

"I died," Ed replied, and Vincent froze. "Oh, don't think I'm anything like you—I had Final Attack paired with Revive when that happened. But death is singularly unpleasant to experience, especially when you get revived afterwards, memory of it intact, and it wasn't a clean death or a full healing on revival."

"...I suppose I can understand that after my own experiences. Are you _sure_ you were never experimented on?"

"Positive. Seriously, Vincent, all of my skills are completely natural, the result of hard work and effort on my part. Well, my mental skills are inherited from my father."

"That still seems...incredible," the older man commented. "What caused your death, or would you rather not say?"

"Er...Remember what happens to me when I touch Materia with my bare skin?"

"Yes. It's debilitating."

"I was climbing the Canyon wall above the ravine on the north-east side of the town and some of the rock broke off the wall. There was a shard of Materia in the space the rock had fallen from, but I didn't realize that until I touched it—and promptly nearly passed out and fell over backwards. Technically, I crushed my skull and broke my neck, and my Revive is still first level, so it couldn't fully restore my physical condition—I was alive, still injured, in a lot of pain, coughing up water, soaking wet and freezing cold. It took me a bit to realize I had just died, but when I did, it hit me hard."

Vincent's eyes closed for a moment before he concluded, "You weren't ready to deal with it then, so suppressed it." His eyes opened again in time to see Ed nod, so he asked, "What Materia was it, and do you remember how you got back to the town?"

"Er—it was the Summon Neo Bahamut, and apparently he emerged from his shard to take me back to town. I'm not entirely clear on that, but...I actually have his shard on me, and I've been avoiding him like the plague since suppressing my memory. Speaking of, I should probably have a chat with him..."

"...Are you ready to?"

"...I sort of have to, but I'm sure I don't want to—keep him on me after that."

"It...wasn't really his fault, was it?"

"No, but that doesn't mean I can deal with him. I don't want to give him to someone who would misuse him, either." Sighing, Ed stopped and sat down cross-legged on the browning grass and pulled on the gloves he'd gotten from Cloud and Rayne so he could pull the Materia shards from his pocket. "Keep an eye out, would you?"

"Of course," the man agreed.

Ed quickly located Neo Bahamut's orb and put the rest back in his pocket, took off one glove, and touched the Summon's orb with one finger. _:Hey,:_ he tentatively spoke to the dragon Summon.

 _:Ah, the Sentinel. You have taken some time to speak with me,:_ the Summon's voice came back to him, surprisingly gentle and rumbling soothingly for a dragon.

 _:I suppressed my memory and ran away from Cosmo Canyon before anyone could fill me in,:_ the young man admitted.

 _:...I see. Forgive me for that unexpected suffering I caused you. I had no idea such a thing could happen, though in my distant memory, perhaps there was a reason for a very few to have such a reaction? I am uncertain, as it was a very distant past.:_

 _:Yeah...The Elder at Cosmo Canyon had said the reason was because I've seen the Alchemist's Gate, so I don't operate by normal standards.:_

 _:The Alchemist's Gate...Yes, that name I recall. What you would have had to have done to have seen it...:_

 _:I know. I was a fool and lost everything I held most precious. What I 'gained' wasn't worth what I 'lost'.:_

Neo Bahamut was quiet for a minute, then said, _:Even then, you are a far more worthy person than the one who attempted to take my shard.:_

 _:...That's a bit of a problem, because even though I know you didn't intend to hurt me, I can't...keep you close to me. Even after a month, it's no easier to have you on me, and I don't think that will ever go away,:_ Ed explained.

Sighing, the dragon admitted, _:I do understand, Sentinel. You have my permission to bring me into contact with others you would trust with me, and I will judge them. If you choose wisely, you may not have need to keep me for long, as you will only have need to take me back should I disapprove of your choice.:_

 _:All right...I think I can live with that arrangement. Thank you,:_ Ed agreed, knowing it was the best he was going to get. He could only hope Genesis or his friends would be considered suitable holders.

 _:Thank you for being willing to do this much, and again, I am sorry for the suffering I caused you,:_ Neo Bahamut said.

After acknowledging the apology, Ed lifted his finger and blinked down at the red orb before using his gloved hand to pick it up and shove it into his pocket with the others. He then looked up to see that Vincent had taken out two of the stone-casting lizard-monsters in the time he'd been talking with the Summon. When he rose, the man faced him with a questioning look, so he shrugged and started walking as he pulled off his gloves and tucked them back into the side pocket on his bag. Vincent followed him.

"I'll be able to offer his orb to others, but he has to approve them," Ed said. "It was otherwise mostly what I figured it would be. Except for someone apparently trying to take his shard, someone he didn't approve of."

"Did he say who?"

"I don't think he knew him by name."

"...Then we'll ask in Cosmo Canyon," Vincent said, and Ed nodded. The man then commented, "I'm—surprised you didn't just destroy the entire Mako Reactor after what you told me they're doing to the Planet."

"Remember what I also told you about Chaos and Omega Theory?" the blond asked in reply, his tone dry. The words caused Chaos' human form to jolt almost violently. "If I destroy the Reactor, especially at this time of year, Nibelheim is going to become a pit of misery and death—the very thing which fills the stagnant Mako pool. I consider it foolish to 'try fixing a problem' by fixing a symptom and continuing to leave the root problem to fester. For now, we need to focus on finding the _solutions_ to the problems and fixing _those_ , not doing this stupid kind of patch job."

"I see..." the black haired man murmured, then they fell silent.

 **Notes:**

(1) Does everyone know about this running joke in the FFVII Compilation, given how every Shinra combat personnel going there pretty much winds up in some sort of trouble? Apparently, it's not limited to Turks and SOLDIERs, since Cloud was only ever an Infantryman or equivalent to a merc and still followed the trend. The incidents are just—worse for Turks and SOLDIERs, the only exception being one Turk who is on house arrest there and has been for some time. Then again, he's considered a resident, not a vacationer.


	28. 28-Two Down

Two Down

It was evening when Ed and Vincent reached the bottom of the canyon cliff right below the town. While the black haired man would have kept following the Canyon path, Ed just walked right up to the wall and began scaling it. Vincent stared at him for a minute, then followed him up the cliff, staying a little behind him just in case—but they reached the top without an issue, and were officially in the town of Cosmo Canyon. Ed headed in the direction of the fire burning in the middle of it, and Vincent followed, feeling oddly puzzled.

And he was even more puzzled when a female voice shouted happily, "Ed!" and a creature like a mountain lion barreled into the teen, knocking him over as it enthusiastically licked his face and he laughed.

"Good to see you again, too, Deneh," the blond chuckled, then giggled as she pressed her cold nose to his throat. "That tickles! And it's cold!"

"Sorry. We were so worried about you!" the large cat answered.

Vincent had to repress his instinct to draw his gun and shoot her at seeing the sharp teeth flashing so close to the boy's unguarded neck. "That is a singularly unsettling sight," Vincent commented, clenching his hands into fists in his struggle not to shoot.

"Who are you?" Deneh asked with acidic suspicion, head whipping up to glare at the black haired man.

"It's okay, Deneh. Vincent has been taking care of me for the last month," Ed told her, pushing himself into a sitting position and scratching her behind her ears. When her gaze turned back to him, he added, "Sorry about running off like that. I remember everything now, so I'm back to normal."

"Good, I'm glad," she answered, sprawling in his lap with her head resting on his shoulder. "There was so much you didn't remember, and you could have gotten hurt alone. We only knew Rude told us a friend of his was checking in with you and would let him know if he needed to find you."

"Yeah. I actually spent most of my time reading, and the only thing I was in danger of was starving myself to death while I raided the library," Ed chuckled.

"Let's not forget the Sahagins, or the Dragon, or Jenova—or burning my house down," Vincent replied dryly, and Deneh burst out laughing as she pushed herself off the blond to look at him from her own haunches.

"Did you really burn his house down, Ed?" she asked in amusement.

"He had plenty of warning and could have stopped me, but he decided not to try. And, it wasn't really 'his house', it was his prison," the teen replied, and she blinked, then nodded.

Rising to her four paws, the large cat said, "Come on, Elder Bugenhagen, Nanaki, and Rude will be so happy to see you again." Deneh then started walking, heading towards the far end of town.

Propelling himself up, Ed ran to catch up to her, followed by Vincent, as he said, "Hey, Deneh, even after talking with Neo Bahamut, one thing still puzzles me."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Who tried to take Neo Bahamut's shard off me?"

"...Fuhito. He left early the next morning."

"...So I was right about him—he doesn't _care_ who he kills."

"Yes. And if a being as powerful and destructive as Neo Bahamut would refute him, he's not the kind of person it's healthy to give power to."

"Ed!" another voice yelled—only for another large cat to land on him as the three reached the base of the stairs leading up to Bugenhagen's observatory. Like when Deneh had barreled into him, this one also licked his face thoroughly and happily in greeting, producing more laughs from both the teen and the female cat.

"Heya, Nanaki!" Ed greeted the male cat. Nanaki backed off more quickly than the first as he turned to look up the stairs shortly after his enthusiastic greeting of the teen.

Rude was there, and quickly ran down the stairs to stop a couple feet from the teen as Ed pushed himself up. "All right, Ed?" Rude asked.

"Yeah. Back to normal. Sorry for worrying you, and thanks for waiting," Ed told him with a small smile. The man reached out to hug him, and Ed returned it gratefully.

"I'm glad you're okay," the darker man said, giving him one last squeeze and releasing him.

"Got all my stuff still, right?" the blond asked.

"Yes. Who is _he_?" Rude asked, frowning in puzzlement at Vincent.

"Let's go to the inn after I see the Elder, and I'll explain," Ed offered. He got agreement to that plan, so headed up to Bugenhagen's. In the end, everyone from the Elder to the two cats joined him, Rude, and Vincent for the evening to discuss what had gone on while he'd been away—an edited version, of course.

CA

Sephiroth had done his duty and cleared the mine of as much of the newly-released monster population as he could. Along the way, he'd come across an odd, almost glowing chunk of metal which definitely wasn't Mythril—Mythril wasn't a deep purple color threaded through with something which was coppery or golden in color. Picking it up, he tucked it away in his supply sack and moved away from the entrance to the tunnel he'd found it just outside, as the tunnel stank like chlorine and nitrogen. It had taken him roughly the estimated two days to clear the areas where workers had to work, and he'd made the circuit pretty much back to the entrance by then, so it was a short jaunt to get out of the cave.

As he stepped into the bright sunlight and blinked his eyes to clear them—his slit pupils were especially useful for managing the transition—he found himself looking at a sea of corpses. While a few people were still alive (about four or five of the almost thirty miners), there was a young woman of about fifteen standing in the middle of the bloodshed, one blade of her weapon sticking out of one man's back. Her hair was vivid red (much like Reno's fire-hydrant red, in fact), falling part-way down her back and she dressed in matching red clothes offset by black. The outfit was decidedly revealing, though her shoulders and upper chest were the best-covered parts in a red drape which was held at the waist behind her by her black belt. Even her double-bladed sword was red. What was it with red heads wearing red?

"You're early!" she announced, spinning to face him with a malicious grin. "I couldn't kill them all since you got here too soon."

"Then I consider that a boon," Sephiroth replied. "Do tell, what made you kill these bystanders when your target is obviously me?"

"Oh, no reason in particular. I was bored, so killing them alleviated my boredom. Well, a bit. Why would _you_ care what happens to them, General Sephiroth? The great General whose only purpose is to kill on command!" She burst into maniacal laughter and lifted her blade to point it at him. "You're no different from us! Why would this matter to you, when you relish bloodshed as much as we do?"

At that, Sephiroth had a fairly good idea of who she was, but asked, "First, who is it 'you' are, and second, what makes you think I enjoy killing merely because I am told to do so? Enjoying a thing and being trained to it are two different things."

She chuckled and announced, "I am Rosso the Crimson from Deepground, one of their most powerful! And, well— _Demon of Wutai—_ you certainly don't hesitate to kill. You'll pursue an enemy to the ends of the Planet!"

"...Well, 'Red the Red', shall we see if you are indeed powerful?" he asked, drawing his sword and holding it loosely at his side.

She first frowned, then snarled, "It's Rosso!" In the next moment, she jumped at him, swinging her blade with a speed and force which was enough for him to feel the jolt of the impact through his body.

After the first blow, they exchanged slashes, parries, thrusts, dodges and all manner of sword skills, and he had even begun using Materia in the battle. Revive and Restore wouldn't help him at the moment, but his Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, and Gravity (at Genesis' insistence) were proving useful. Rosso was also using Materia to assist the battle, and she clearly liked very flashy things, like Fire, Lightning, and a few spells he was sure were on the Contain Materia, such as Flare and Tornado. The one thing he noticed as they fought was that her spells weren't any more or less dangerous than his, despite the very high level of some of them. He began to wonder if Genesis was right in saying it was better to know basic Materia very well and manipulate them to your will than to know only the very basics of powerful Materia.

Either way, they fought that way, right down into the marshes—and had taken a momentary pause to kill the nearest Midgar Zolom—for a good hour, leaving small cuts, bruises, burns, and other minor injuries all over one another's bodies. Finally, after one collision of their blades, they both stopped, Rosso jumping back to gaze at him with an almost puzzled frown as he straightened and just gazed at her. He was thankful for the break, but had no intention of taking his eyes off her when she clearly wasn't done with the battle. In fact, she merely seemed puzzled by how difficult it was proving to defeat him, and he was sure he hadn't yet seen her hyper mode.

Suddenly, she gave that malicious grin again and asked, "Did I tell you Genesis walked right into little Nero's waiting hands?"

Blinking, Sephiroth struggled not to show his feelings about that, knowing about the boy's void powers, but instead asked warily, "Which means what, exactly, and why would it matter to me?"

"Oh, isn't he your friend?" she smirked smugly. When Sephiroth didn't answer right away, she went on, "Nero's dark void power makes things just cease to exist, and no one can stand against it. Nothing can block it. Genesis took the mission to Mideel, so—that was Nero's doing, and Genesis will be dead by now, I'm sure of it. And you can't even check on him because you haven't seen my most powerful skills yet!"

She then shot at him in a blaze of light as he raised his sword to block her, and the force of her impact was so strong the marsh fluids were shoved back from them in a circle about twenty feet in radius. It was all Sephiroth could do to block her as her speed and strength—and all of her capabilities—increased well beyond even his own. If he wasn't so well-trained in battle, he'd have lost track of her and been skewered within moments, and his movement was greatly restricted by the marsh waters flooding back into the area around his feet, while she seemed to be barely touching the ground.

How could he keep this up?

Her speed was so high she was creating after-images, and her lines were harsh and straight— (1)

Pursing his lips, Sephiroth realized how he could defeat her, and shifted his feet to balance his stance. Up to that point, he'd been countering her, giving her the impact she needed to change directions suddenly. If he didn't give her that impact, she couldn't change her direction so quickly or easily, and he'd bet his survival on that fact. As such, at her next incoming strike, instead of trying to block it, he slid aside and lifted his sword to let hers barely glance alongside it. The result placed the blade just high enough to behead her as she shot past him, unable to stop herself. In the moment before his blade touched her throat, her eyes widened in surprise—and she was dead, her head flying off to land on one of the huge coils of the slowly-dissipating snake they had killed earlier.

For a minute, Sephiroth stood still and panted, then felt the movement of the marsh water which indicated an approaching Midgar Zolom. Knowing it wouldn't be to his benefit to stay there, he quickly sheathed his blade and turned back to the solid land near the Mine, pulling out his PHS to call Genesis. He let it ring several times, but his friend didn't answer—though, on the other hand, the phone on his friend's side still existed, so he could hope the red haired man was still alive.

Of course, he now also had concerns about what and how much access to data Deepground had for her to have known in advance everyone's mission assignments.

CA

Angeal had arrived in Modeoheim and immediately found that there were indeed monsters in the deserted village between the Mako Reactor and the town called Icicle Inn. While no one had actively used it for some time, Shinra tended to keep it clear in case they needed to move workers or scientists back in there for some reason, and there was also the fear of monsters in Modeoheim attacking Icicle Inn or the Reactor workers. In that sense, Angeal perfectly understood the mission, and it truly should have been a simple case of clearing some local monsters, such as a pack of Bandersnatches, the northern, gray and sandy colored, maned wolves.

Instead, when the man got to the town, he found a bunch of creatures he'd never seen before—a 'bunch' meaning easily over four dozen. They were icy blue with black horns, claws, and fangs, stood nearly to mid-chest on him at the shoulder, walked on all fours, and had long, tapering tails. He'd have said they somewhat resembled Behemoths, but that also wasn't an apt description, as they were scaled with a shaggy, white mane. (2) They were also vicious and targeted him to launch attacks, keeping him in constant battle from the moment he stepped into town, but magic was useless against them, as the scales seemed to largely deflect it. He was very glad Genesis hadn't been the one to come here given his strong reliance on magic in combat.

Even for him, the constant battle was wearing him out. Every time he killed one, two more took its place, and they were—being drawn to him from other parts of the town, the snarling and yowling sounds they made as he fought and killed them acting as a summons for more. He'd never seen monsters battle like this before, and was beginning to have doubts about whether they were 'quite' monsters, or if they were something else, a being which had once been human or had developed near-human intelligence. Either way, at the moment, all he could do was fight them, so he did.

Finally, after a few hours of hacking and slashing, the monsters stopped coming. At first, Angeal heaved a sigh of relief, then dug an energy drink and snack out of the supplies he'd been given for the mission and sat down to eat and drink, using a barrel leaning against a building as his seat. After replenishing his resources, he stayed seated and leaned back with his eyes closed, taking a short rest as he turned his full attention to what his ears could hear. It was by doing so that he realized there were more of the monsters in the buildings—he could hear them moving around in the two nearest him.

Once he was rested, the man got up and began walking around from building to building, letting himself inside and shutting the doors behind himself so he could kill the monsters inside without others interfering. In that way, each building was a much more controlled battle, and only a few more attacked outside, meaning he'd nearly gotten them all. He was grateful, and hoped he'd find no more after he finished in the last building, what had once served as a town hall.

However, as he stepped out of the town hall, he froze in place and blinked at the man he could see standing in the middle of the town square, several more of the monsters standing easily and companionably at his sides. The man was large and muscular, dressed in gray pants and boots with a darker gray tank top and gloves, and a tattered, cloak-like device dangling from around his neck. On the pants, shirt, gloves, and boots, there were a few Mako blue horizontal stripes, and his eyes glowed the same color. In one hand, he carried a large, black, hand-held cannon, which he wasn't actually pointing at anyone right then.

"So you're Commander Angeal Hewley," the man commented. "You did well against the Raiders, considering the number. These are the last of them, but I won't be as easy for you to beat as they are."

Blinking again as Angeal realized this man was the ringleader of the monsters, felt he had to ask, "Why did you come here and who are you?"

"Me? Oh, partly because I was told to come create some chaos and partly because I hoped I'd meet a strong opponent. You'll be fun to fight, even if you lose, because you're worthy of fighting," the man answered—but didn't actually say who he was.

Tipping his head to the side a bit, Angeal admitted, "I also like a powerful opponent, but there's no honor in fighting a man I don't know. My task here is the monsters, not you, so if you want me to fight you, give me your name and fight me one-on-one."

The man gave a toothy grin and said, "I'm Azul the Cerulean of Deepground. This will be a good match indeed, and they won't interfere. Though, if you manage to beat me by some miracle, they may kill you while you're weak. And to be clear on this, our match is a death match. Only one of us will leave alive—me!"

Angeal inclined his his head in recognition of the majority of the statement, but said, "The winner is yet to be decided, Azul the Cerulean. Let's just wait and see on that last point of your speech." He then hefted his blade.

He had prepared to dodge the cannon-fire—Azul's first line of attack as the large man grinned widely was a volley of missiles from the cannon until it ran out. To avoid the missiles, Angeal found he had to sprint and zig-zag around the square, jumping and leaping as some got too close and the shock waves from the blasts buffeted him, working his way gradually closer to Azul. He was rather glad of the cannon running out of ammunition, and immediately turned to make a bee-line for—not Azul, but the cannon so Azul couldn't re-load it. The larger man tried to swing it like a bat to hit him, but he'd been expecting such a move, so used that to his advantage to slice the cannon to pieces and make it useless.

Howling with laughter, Azul discarded the weapon and jumped at Angeal, swinging his fists in harsh martial arts attacks. At first, Angeal just parried on his basic SOLDIER-issue broadsword, watching the man's patterns and looking for openings he'd be able to use as the blows pushed him back a foot or so at a time. He took no damage, but if he ran out of space to back up, he'd be in trouble, and Azul was too wild of a fighter to have a set pattern he could rely on for openings. It looked like he'd have to do this the hard way, though there was one fighting style he, Sephiroth, and Genesis practiced which could greatly help him in this battle.

Decision made, Angeal shot to the side as he bent his sword to deflect one of Azul's punches, destabilizing the man and giving himself time to re-position himself in his new, narrower stance with his blade held by his ear and the tip pointing forward. As the larger man faced him, Angeal was the one to initiate battle that time, using his sword to thrust as he largely deflected the other's blows and landed shallow stabs on the man's chest, arms, and legs. While someone with Mako enhancements wouldn't take a great deal of damage from such minor attacks, over time and an inability for them to heal, it would weaken an opponent, even kill them if it went on too long.

When Azul changed his tactics and grabbed his sword blade in one hand, Angeal flashed back to Sephiroth doing the same thing in their training, and to Genesis' words _'That's what Elemental is for.'_ He knew he had to activate his Bolt Blade before Azul threw him or he'd be in trouble, so immediately sent his hand forward along his blade as he triggered the Elemental and Lightning Materia he had slotted in it. Azul couldn't move back from the blade, and as the electrical current shot along his body from the hand on Angeal's blade, his eyes widened and his jaw went slack in shock.

With that momentary paralysis—and it _would_ only be 'momentary' in someone with Mako enhancements—Angeal yanked his blade free of the other's grip and used it to stab him through the chest, puncturing his left lung and clipping his heart. As he pulled back, Azul stumbled and fell to the ground on his knees, but after a moment, he began laughing.

"Well done," Azul boomed, still laughing. "It's been a long time since I needed to use my Arch Azul form!"

A moment later, Azul's body shone, bent, and twisted, growing in size until he was almost three times Angeal's height and covered in hard, armored plating similar to the scales of the smaller beasts. His coloring was mostly steely gray with blue stripes in the Mako blue color of his eyes and clothes, and there was a furry, dark blue mane trailing from his head to the tip of his tail. He had the same huge, forward-pointing horns, the same massive claws, and the same sharp fangs as a normal Behemoth, but its bulk and size were greater than a normal Behemoth's.

The change had been so sudden and Azul had come out of it swinging, leaving Angeal next to no time to block, though he managed to get his SOLDIER-issue broadsword up in time to—help block the blow. The result of the attack sent Angeal flying across the square to roll across the ground, his standard sword obliterated and his side sliced open in four long gashes. It had also told him how fast, how strong, and how well-armored the monster was—he wouldn't have much luck without using magic, as he could tell the armor plating was for physical defense, not magical. Odd, that, considering what the smaller monsters, the Raiders, were like. On the other hand, the thickness of the plating would automatically reduce damage from most of the elements.

Pushing himself to his feet as the Behemoth shot forward to charge him, Angeal made an instant decision and seized the hilt of his Buster Sword, drawing it in a smooth motion and activating the Elemental on it—Gravity. (3) In the same moment he activated the Demi Blade, he shot forward to meet the beast in the middle, bringing the Buster Sword down on the Behemoth's head with a fierce shout.

There was a moment where time seemed to slow, then stop—then light and darkness flashed, and crushing force shattered the Behemoth's armor, followed by an explosion which sent Angeal hurling up and back. A beastly shriek of pain and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground came to him as he hit a wall back-first and had the wind knocked out of him. At first, he slumped to the ground, vision blurred and dark as he struggled to get breath in his lungs, but his Mako enhancements and the Jenova cells kicked in and began working to heal him, so he was able to get his breath and rise as his vision cleared.

Standing strong, he gazed at the broken beast laying on the ground in the middle of the square, sighing as it began struggling to its feet. It growled at him and began slowly walking forward, stumbling but seething hatred and a desire to kill.

"Don't worry, I'll put you out of your misery, you poor beast," Angeal told it sadly, and raised his Buster Sword as he shot at Arch Azul, cleanly beheading him.

As the beast fell, the Raiders—nine all together—shot at him in a furious rage, so he swung around and activated his Demi Blade again, crushing the skulls of every one of them in the one swing.

Finally, the ghost town was silent, so he turned back towards the chopper.

 **Notes:**

(1) Rosso is only fifteen, not twenty-five, so her skills aren't as refined or as well-adapted as they were in Dirge of Cerberus—she doesn't yet know how to turn when she's going at top speed, and even in DC, that was a hard thing for her to do.

(2) These are made up monsters, what I imagine a semi-success at the metamorphose experiments would result in, and I'm sure that would have happened, too. Azul only killed the ones who were in his group of experimental subjects, not the ones who came earlier or later.

(3) In the canon story, by the fact that the FFVII main game has Cloud start with Ice and Lightning in the Buster Sword he got from Zack who inherited it from Angeal, I would assume that Angeal originally had Ice and Lightning in his sword since I don't see Zack switching off Angeal's Materia with the whole 'inheritance' thing. However, things in this story have been happening significantly differently, so I'm playing around some with which Materia are slotted and by whom at any one time. Gravity came at Genesis' request, and I don't see Angeal completely ignoring his best friend, but Ice and Lightning are still on his regular sword and he may switch them again later in the story.


	29. 29-Holy Void

Holy Void

Genesis had gotten to Mideel after noon the next day, the chopper landing outside the view of the village in a small meadow in the jungle. He had headed in the direction his file had indicated the monster (or monsters) was in, which was north through the dense forest, and had found a nest of them, Head Hunters and their babies, Crysales. They seemed to be generating blank spaces, dark spheres which were destroying their nest and driving them mad, particularly when they managed to strike one another with them. While Genesis wasn't entirely sure what the cause was, it looked similar to the effects of Gravity Materia, but more intense. What he was coming to understand was that the effect was much like a void, a black hole, and it was singularly concerning.

It was more than obvious that the ability wasn't natural to the creatures, and had been done recently—likely quite recently. As such, he took some time to observe it and plan ways it could be countered, as going into battle completely unprepared would be suicide. There was something he kept not-quite-remembering, a thought right on the edge of his mind, the feeling that he'd seen or heard of something like this before. It wouldn't come to him, so he sighed faintly and gave a small grin at the challenge of working out the issue entirely on his own.

If he took it as a form of the Demi spell, it had crushing force, but said force could be shielded against—Reflect (he had modified his to have traits of the Shield spell) would work to prevent it from making contact, and Magic Barrier would reduce the damage. Due to its variable properties, he had doubts about either being completely effective, particularly with how it seemed to crush things into a state of non-existence, rather than merely physically damaging them. The amount of force it would have to exert to do that—could he judge it by watching the effect for it specifically?

Once again, he turned his gaze to the jumpy, near-rabid insect-monsters to catch the exact effect of the dark patches. One of them accidentally hurled a sphere at a tree near Genesis, and he watched closely through narrowed eyes until the sphere vanished and the top part of the tree crashed to the ground. What had been left between the lower part of the trunk and the treetop had been—absolutely nothing, and the edges of the trunk and fallen treetop looked like they had been sheared off cleanly. Only a blade could have done that—Demi didn't have the capacity to slice things off that way.

Well, no, Genesis had to amend—there was a way 'gravity' could have done it, but not through the Demi spell. He was thinking of the wrong kind of gravity, despite the void-like comparison he'd made earlier. The ability itself was effectively creating a localized black hole which was dragging everything in its zone of effect into its core, thereby destroying it.

The question was, what had caused it? Or maybe it didn't matter much, as the source was definitely unnatural, and there was no Mako Reactor to blame it on. Maybe it would be as easy as finding the human or humans experimenting on the Head Hunters in this nest and killing them.

Sighing, he tapped his chin as he thought about the cause. What did it take to create a black hole? Was that even possible? He was suddenly reminded of Ed and the skill he used, called 'alchemy'. It was versatile and once nearly destroyed the world through that very versatility—maybe this very versatility. The Gravity Materia had very specific operational terms, but what if they could be modified to cause this?

Genesis put a bit of space between himself and the nest, stopping in front of a dead tree tilted away from his position as he examined his Materia. Unlike Edward, he could only use so many before suffering for it, so chose very carefully, and tended to keep his elements on him—Fire, Ice, Lighting, Earth, and Gravity. Those five were required for nearly all SOLDIERs Second and above, given how they were used in various combinations in almost every mission they were sent on. Currently, his Gravity wasn't paired with anything, so he'd be able to focus just on it, something he needed to be able to do to see its activation arrays—not just the main effect array, but the others which controlled its functions.

Extending his hand towards the tree, he closed his eyes and focused on the Materia shard as he activated it, pushing with his will against the energy of the object. He could feel the flow of energy, and as he pushed against it, he could trace the arrays, and fixed those images in his mind. Each array, how they inter-linked, and what the key components were, he could see them all. Now, what he was looking for was what could cause the arrays to create a black hole—and with that focus, his attention was drawn to some of the sub-arrays allowing the base to function.

He had never realized before that some of the functionality arrays may have been to _exclude_ certain effects, yet that was exactly what these five arrays were doing. When Minerva (even though he let others think it was the Lifestream, he knew it was the Goddess Minerva's doing) had given the Ancients Materia, she had designed them to exclude the most devastating effects in their functionality. Through those arrays, even if people were able to modify the base array to adjust effects, the sub-arrays would prevent the worst forms from taking effect.

He now also had a very good question to ask—of all the forces Materia made available to people, while some classified as 'light', or 'holy', none but a few of the Summons held a 'dark' elemental affinity. But that was a question for another time, probably one he'd have to discuss with Ed.

Back to the matter at hand...

In short, to create the effect the Head Hunters were displaying, Demi alone could never do it, but merging a 'dark' element with Demi would—and the Goddess had ensured that could never happen by excluding 'darkness' from merging with Gravity Materia. In the case of the sub-arrays, that was any kind of darkness or evil influence, not just monsters or a dark Materia—even required existing dark forces couldn't merge with Demi to create the effect. Not even Chaos could force a Gravity Materia to work the way he was seeing the monsters' ability function.

Chaos...

The stagnant Mako, and Nero!

Genesis' eyes opened and went huge as he realized what he was dealing with.

"Oh, shit!" he cursed softly. "It just _had_ to be Deepground, didn't it?" Then it occurred to him to wonder if this was actually a trap, and if he'd just walked into something he wouldn't be able to get out of.

After a moment, he discarded the thought that it had been planned to such a degree—he had no doubt it was a trap after a form, but if it had truly been the kind of trap he had no chance of escaping from, he would already be dead. Either they wanted to see how he handled the monsters (which had a whole host of concerns, like being captured and inducted into Deepground), or they didn't even know he was there, and wouldn't until something happened to the monsters. He honestly wasn't sure which option he preferred, but either way, he would be in trouble no matter how things turned out.

As to how he could handle that power...gravity combined with darkness, evil, malevolence, a desire to destroy...Normal elements wouldn't be very functional against it, nor would healing spells. Mind you, he could simply kill the Head Hunters, as that was what he'd wind up having to do regardless, and they didn't have the capability of using the ability effectively. Head Hunters weren't hard to kill for someone at his level of skill. What worried him was what he could do against the human who had done that to them.

If it was Nero, even if he'd only be about thirteen now, he would still have a lot more control over it and a much-increased ability to aim...And he'd have to be incredibly strong to be a Tsviet at his age. That was what took thought.

Could he somehow convert the dark energy to light? If he did, would that count as 'purifying' it so it could return to the Lifestream naturally?

"Well, maybe I'll think of something while I kill the Head Hunters," he chuckled to himself, glancing down at the two red orbs he had on his Wizard Bracelet.

Turning, he returned to the nest and began shooting fireballs—all at the Fire 3 level—at the insect-monsters, clearing most of the babies and some of the adults with his rapid-fire skill. He didn't even need an All to shoot off his spells so fast he may as well have been wearing one paired with his Fire. What remained of the Head Hunters and the Crysales turned to attack him in blind rage, launching both their physical attacks and their new, dark ability.

And that was where things became difficult.

He could easily dodge the physical attacks, but the dark energy spheres were more emotionally-commanded than he had initially thought—once they had focused on him as a threat, the spheres targeted him and stopped in his location when they launched it. The result was that more than one hit him simultaneously as he tried to dodge, and his only saving grace was his Mastered Barrier Materia, giving him the ability to cast Reflect. While it didn't send the power back at the monsters, it generated a bubble around him which prevented the attacks from reaching him—and the monsters largely destroyed themselves by attempting physical attacks while he was encased in those dark energy spheres.

It was a rather surreal experience to be surrounded by darkness and to watch one's protective bubble breaking. Gravity was non-existent in the dark sphere surrounding him, so he was floating in his Reflect barrier in the void, and only saw another object if it touched the Reflect bubble. It rather proved the 'void' theory, and he could see the darkness weakening as the insects killed themselves by trying to attack him. If it hadn't been such a disturbing, dire situation, Genesis might have actually found it a bit funny to watch monsters killing themselves, but currently...

He couldn't find any humor in it, and maintaining the Reflect spell was draining his energy, surely but gradually.

How did he get out of it? There was no guarantee the last ones would also essentially commit suicide, after all, and it wasn't like he had functional movement while floating. How did you move in a weightless space, how did you give yourself a push?

"Ah," he suddenly smiled as he thought of a way to get out of the dark sphere.

Casting Big Guard from his Enemy Skill Materia gave him shields against both physical and magical damage and cast Haste on him, giving him the protection he needed as he cast Flare from his Contain Materia. The spell was targeted to the inside wall of his Reflect bubble, and as soon as he launched the explosive spell at the wall of his 'prison', he could feel himself being hit by the back draft. It pushed him hard towards the opposite wall of the bubble, and as he hit said wall, he cast a second Reflect on himself, allowing him to pass through the void on the other side of the wall.

It only took a moment for the Reflect bubble to hit the ground, and for him to follow suit. He rolled and came to his feet, eyes seeking the remaining Head Hunters. There were three, and in the moments it took him to regain his bearings, one had already hit him with its claws, causing him to retaliate with a Demi 3 so strong it turned the bug into a splatter on crushed ground. He activated Quake 3 to kill the other two, but took a page from Ed's book and modified the arrays to hit both at once and create sharp spikes, rather than hitting one with squared chunks of rock.

Sighing with exhaustion, Genesis sagged to the ground against a nearby tree, eyes closed as he rested and thought about what he'd learned of the functionality of the void. Getting stuck in it wasn't a good idea because the pressure it exerted on barriers of all sorts was high—no one could hold against that forever. At the same time...What else could he do?

Pressing a few fingers of his free hand to one of the Summon orbs, he pushed his mind against it and sought out its arrays. He could feel the presence within it questioning what he was doing, but right now, he didn't have the time to Summon the being and talk—someone from Deepground would be there soon. As such, he examined the arrays and tested a few small modifications he could possibly make to them to—what _was_ he trying to do to the darkness, exactly? Change its polarity so it wasn't so dangerous, he supposed. As he focused on that goal, the presence became understanding and directed his gaze to seven of the functionality arrays of the Summon.

It didn't take him long to realize what he was being shown, and a small smile settled on his face as he opened his eyes—in time to see a boy land across the way from him, on the remains of the Head Hunters' nest. The boy's hair was long, shaggy, and black, and he wore something on his face which resembled a metal muzzle, leaving very little of it visible, other than his dark eyes. The gray, full-body-suit he wore had glowing, blue lines running horizontally down it, and there were metallic 'limbs' of a sort which resembled skeletal wings attached to his back, though he was rather dwarfed by them.

"So you defeated them," the boy said, his tone unconcerned. "But you won't defeat me so easily. Challenging Deepground will be the last thing you ever do." He sent one of the void bubbles at Genesis, but he had been expecting it, so dodged, rolled, and came to his feet as he threw a Fire 3 at the boy—who used another void bubble to negate the attack. "Looks like you took some damage, though."

"Care to tell me your name?" Genesis asked dryly. "After all, I'd like to know the name of the one who did so much harm—and didn't care one bit about that fact."

"Heh, not that you really have the right to condemn me when nearly all of Shinra does the same thing, but I'll humor you," the boy replied. "Nero the Sable."

"I see," the red haired man muttered. He was both depressed and happy to know he had correctly determined the cause and origin, but he could have done without it.

Before he could say any more, he found a void sphere shooting at him and quickly tapped the Summon's orb to activate the arrays in it, then threw his hand forward to direct the arrays—the modified ones—towards the sphere.

On his first attempt, light shimmered around his hand and the sphere separated into several smaller ones which shot out in all directions around him and dissipated, making both him and Nero blink in surprise. While the result wasn't exactly what he had been going for, it had been useful regardless, and told him he was on the right track, but it wouldn't help against another attack if the attack was larger or came from more directions. His only saving grace was that no one but himself and Ed knew anything about the arrays or how to modify them.

"...How did you do that?" Nero asked darkly.

"How do you create your void spheres?" Genesis asked in reply.

"I see no need to tell you!"

"There you go, that's your answer." (1)

The boy's eyes narrowed and he launched two spheres, both larger than the previous one, and Genesis again tapped the Summon's red orb to activate the arrays he needed, his hand shooting forward to direct the energy at the spheres. In his mind, the array modifications were clearer, his definition of them closer to the intended effect he was looking for. The result was that a series of unclear arrays took form in light energy around his hand, and beams of light pierced the void spheres, breaking them apart and generating many small, glowing bubbles of light which began dissipating. It rather resembled white, rather than green, pyreflies.

"Impossible!" Nero shouted—and jumped at him, void energy flaring around him, creating vibrations in the air with its force.

Suddenly, the arrays he needed came crystal clear in Genesis' mind, so he pulled his hand back, brushed his fingers over the red orb one last time, and shot forward to meet Nero in the middle.

It was like slow motion. His hand drew back from the orb, but a band of pure white light followed it forward, and brilliantly clear and glowing arrays lit around his hand. But it was more than that, this time—he felt the Summon's energy flowing through him, merging with him, channeling into the arrays around his hand, and for a minute, he _became_ both Alexander (2) and Genesis. Wings sprouted from his shoulder blades, the one on the right a beautiful dove-gray (3), and the other composed of pure white light, even as the void energy connected to his hand and the arrays around it—

There was a boom and a flash, and the entire void shone brilliantly as Nero screamed once—then there was silence as the light dissipated, taking Nero with it into the Lifestream. What pyreflies appeared then dissipated very quickly as Genesis dropped to the ground, unharmed.

The red haired man was exhausted, and he had a wing which he desperately wanted to go away so he didn't have to think about it yet. To his relief, it vanished and he could stumble back to the chopper. He'd think about it all later.

CA

As he walked through the marsh, Sephiroth thought about what he could do after finding his call to Genesis not being answered. The next most obvious call to make would be to Angeal, so he put it through. The other man answered with a tired sounding question, "What do you need, Sephiroth?"

"You sound tired. Were the monsters so difficult to fight?" the younger man asked in concern.

"No, not really. Well, yes, when over fifty of them swarmed me, but no. It's fighting Azul the Cerulean that tired me out. Now, what did you need?"

"I just fought Rosso the Crimson. I believe she was attempting to unsettle me to make me easier to defeat, but I see no reason for her to have lied under the circumstances. She said Genesis had gone to Nero's watch. If that was true, and Genesis did not answer when I called him..."

Angeal drew in a sharp breath and asked, "Did his PHS still connect?"

"Yes, but with no reply, something may still be wrong. Could you try? Maybe I just caught him in a bad situation, but I also have to call for help here because Rosso killed nearly all the miners."

"Gotcha, I'll see if I can get in touch with him, and I'll check up on his chopper and his arrival time too, since you may not get back for hours. See if Lazard has heard anything, though, and if he has, call me back to let me know."

"I will, and thank you," Sephiroth said as he stepped onto solid ground. He then hung up and walked back up to the Mine entrance, putting in a call to Lazard for emergency assistance. As it turned out, the man hadn't gotten an update from Genesis' quarter—or from Angeal's either—so he had no choice but to leave the rest in Angeal's hands until he was able to return to Headquarters.

CA

Angeal, true to his word, also tried to call Genesis, but also got no answer despite the phone still connecting. He waited in concern for his arrival back at Headquarters so he could use their resources to track the chopper Genesis was due to return in. As such, he was somewhat surprised to see the very chopper he was looking for return around the same time as his own. Wanting to know what had happened, he jumped from his and ran to meet the other one, not even waiting for his own to land fully before pulling open the door and jumping to the landing platform. The door of Genesis' chopper didn't open right away, and when it did, the one opening it was the Infantry pilot, not Genesis—and the trooper started in surprise at seeing him there.

"Where's Genesis?" Angeal asked in concern.

"Right there," the trooper said, motioning at one of the seats behind him. Angeal looked and saw Genesis slumped in the seat, eyes closed and looking somewhat beaten up. At the worry in his eyes, the man in the navy and white uniform offered, "He's fine, just magically exhausted. I have no idea what happened, but he got back, climbed in, and passed out. If you want, you can take him to his own apartment to rest, Commander. It'll spare me having to try to get the key."

Nodding, the black haired man climbed into the chopper to gather his slender friend in his arms, but as he was about to go, the trooper asked, "Are _you_ okay, Commander?"

Blinking, Angeal looked at him and saw the man generally looking in the direction of the torn, blood-soaked cloth at his side, so he gave a small smile and said, "I'm fine. My enhancements and some Cure magic fixed it right up. It just looks worse than it really is. Thank you for your concern, though, Trooper."

With a nod, the man flipped the stair down for Angeal to use while carrying Genesis, then set about closing up and servicing the vehicle, even as Angeal headed inside. By the time he'd gotten to the SOLDIER Firsts' rooms, he had realized the red haired man was indeed magically exhausted, but relatively unharmed physically. As such, when he got to the red haired man's room, he put him right to bed, then sat down to wait for Sephiroth to get there and for Genesis to wake up. He had no doubt the former would happen before the latter.

 **Notes:**

(1) It always seemed strange to me how people would willingly tell their enemies the exact functionality of their powers—boasting is one thing, but essentially telling your enemy how to beat you is just stupidity. This would be a much more likely conversation people in Deepground or SOLDIER would have. :P

(2) I took so long to name the Summon on purpose—how many figured it out before I named Alexander? Regardless, we know very little about what Materia Genesis has on him (Fire, Elemental, and Bahamut are the only technical registered ones), but I'm sure he has more than that, and I felt like playing with Alexander. :P He suits this Genesis, anyway.

(3) In a setting different from the original scenario, I actually feel Genesis' wing would show up differently, because his situation is different. Part of that comes from Alexander having channeled through him, which would have made it paler because Alexander is a Holy Summon. Furthermore, I think Sephiroth's and Angeal's wings would stay black and white respectively—also because their genetics were a whole lot more stable than Genesis'—while his would naturally have been gray as the offset and middle ground between the other two. It was never as dark as Sephiroth's wing. You're free to disagree with me, but in my story, Genesis' wing is still going to be 'dove-gray', which to me is pale to medium gray.


	30. 30-Decisions

Decisions

Ed had managed to climb to the top of the Pinnacle entirely on his own that time, and was sitting at the edge facing the ocean to the southwest, his leg dangling down the side of the flat-topped spire. With his bracers, gloves, sword, and dagger on, he felt a lot better, despite realizing he sort of missed using a spear of some sort. Since he was largely going for a huge number of Materia for versatility, it wouldn't make sense to switch to a spear at this point, but it wouldn't stop him from using them whenever he came across an opportunity. He had also bought another bracer for Zirconade's shards, which he'd put on his upper right arm—the side he was more likely to be careless with after five years of having auto-mail there instead of flesh and blood.

And right now, rather than his weapons or his Materia, he was just enjoying the view for the view. He probably wouldn't get to see it again...

Vincent landed behind him and stood silently for a minute before asking, "Is something bothering you?"

At that, Ed had to give a wry chuckle. "No. Maybe something should be, but this was the first view I saw which I ever just saw—to _enjoy_ it, rather than to assess its materials and use to me." He paused as he felt Nanaki and Deneh stop near the top of the Pinnacle, within hearing range but not sight. "When we leave Cosmo Canyon, I probably won't be coming back. Well, more like...I probably won't be welcome."

"Why would you think that?" Vincent asked. "Nanaki and Deneh clearly adore you, and the villagers all seem happy to have you here."

Sighing, the sixteen-year-old said, "I've been doing a lot of thinking, both as I am now and as I was while I was with you. The data I found in Nibelheim points to a ton more problems than I realized were going on when I first found out about the dead zones around the Reactors. I've had a lot of time to assess what can and cannot be done, and what kind of position, power, and funds I'd need to have to fix it. Alone, it can't be done, and AVALANCHE is going about it completely the wrong way—they're thinking too small, to immediate, not looking at any long-term effects or all the other things that also need to be fixed, like Genesis' baby sister being kidnapped and taken to Deepground."

"...What does all of that have to do with you not being welcome here?"

"Because I'm going to be joining the Turks." He'd have laughed at the shock he could feel practically oozing from all three of his listeners if he'd been telling a joke or known less about how much the people of Cosmo Canyon hated Shinra.

"The Turks aren't people you can just join, like it's fact," the black haired man pointed out after a minute.

"Sure. Except Veld—the Turks' current leader—has already extended an invitation to me to join, so as soon as I give him the word, I'm in."

Deneh jumped up to the top of the Pinnacle and said in distress, "But you're a Sentinel, you can't go joining Shinra when they're trying to destroy the Planet! No Sentinel could justify that!"

"There's a way a Sentinel _can_ justify it," Ed answered, turning his gaze towards the sky. "Because from outside Shinra, it's impossible to fix the things that are wrong, and to do it in a way which gives people a real chance to do things right without losing everything they have. Just destroying the Reactors won't save the world—no, we have to find a way to put that energy _back_."

"Grandfather would help you do that," Nanaki said as he joined the others on the Pinnacle. It was starting to get crowded up there.

"His resources are too limited, and that doesn't address all the _other_ problems."

"All the others aren't your responsibility," the male cat insisted. "You're a Sentinel. The Planet is your responsibility, nothing else."

At the words, Ed began to laugh as he held a hand to his head. When he stopped, he rose and turned to face them. "One is all, all is one," he said quietly, eyes on Nanaki and Deneh. "Understand this—the world isn't black and white. I learned that the hard way when my father abandoned us and our mother died. If you want to talk about saving the Planet, you _also_ have to talk about saving everything on it, plants, animals, monsters, and humans. Shelke's personal safety and well-being _isn't_ less important than the Planet's, and if that's what you think of the world, it's not a wonder you can't find solutions to problems. If it's okay for her to suffer, you're justifying the suffering of the Planet. No, nothing can be fixed unless _everything_ is fixed. Maybe one day, you'll understand the meaning of the basic rule of life, of existence, one is all and all is one. Until then, you won't understand why I need Shinra's power and resources to save the world—and everyone it's possible to save on it."

He then stepped over to the path leading down from the Pinnacle and began working his way down, being careful of places where he had stumbled or slipped on his previous attempts to climb up or down. Vincent followed him, but Deneh and Nanaki stayed at the top, obviously needing time to think about what he'd said.

"Are you really sure you want to give your life to kill on command, to falsify data, to kidnap or threaten innocent people?" Vincent asked him quietly as they reached the bottom of the spire.

As Rude joined them, Ed faced Vincent and said, "I know you're worried about me, but this wouldn't be the first time I've made a similar decision. Yes, I'm only sixteen, but I've been on the battlefield and know what I'm getting into. Stop looking at me and seeing an incompetent child, Vincent. I haven't been 'a child' since my mother died, and I lost all semblance of innocence at eleven."

"What's the matter?" Rude asked in shock, hearing the speech.

"Nothing," the blond said with a smile at the bald man. "Just trying to get Vincent to stop worrying about my decision to join the Turks."

"You've made it?" the darker man asked in mild surprise.

"Really just debating when to tell Veld," the younger man gave a wry grin, and Rude gave him a small smile.

"It'll be good to have you," Rude agreed, and Ed nodded.

"I'm not telling him until we've left here, anyway," the younger said. "Now, I still have a few things I want to talk to Bugenhagen about, so I'll catch you for supper, okay?" At Rude's nod, Ed headed up the stairs towards Bugenhagen's.

"...A sixteen-year-old shouldn't be..." Vincent said softly.

"He's not sixteen," Rude said, and the other man's eyes went to him. He tapped his head above his ear and added, "He is much older. Too old for his age." (1) The man then seemed to sigh and give his head a shake before walking away to go sit by the fire.

Meanwhile, Ed got up to the old man's home and let himself in as the Elder chuckled at him. When he sat at the short table where the elderly man took his tea, Bugenhagen asked, "Did you tell Deneh and Nanaki of your plans?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure how _you_ know them," Ed answered dryly.

"Oh ho ho! Age and wisdom, my boy, age and wisdom. You've dropped hints here and there, and so has Rude. Unless I miss my guess, your friend is a Turk, and the man you brought back with you once was one as well."

Ed shrugged and said, "The Turks have had their eye on me since—well about two months ago now, I guess. But there was something I've been thinking about and wanted to run by you."

"Which is?"

"Do you think alchemy would be able to merge Materia together?"

"In what way?"

"...Like, to combine Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth into one Materia shard so it only takes up one slot instead of four, for example? Or to take Poison and merge it with Added Effect to make the Bio Blade automatic without needing two slots to do it? That sort of thing."

"Oh ho ho, now that is an interesting question!" Bugenhagen said happily. "I do wonder how much the Lifestream would allow a Sentinel to manipulate its functions."

"Yes, well, I can already manipulate the arrays making the Materia function, but that's not what I mean. I'm talking about keeping the existing functions, but having all of them come from the same source."

There was a silence, then the old man asked, "Tell me, how different are the arrays of the Materia compared to your alchemy?"

For a minute, Ed considered the question, then said, "When I originally learned alchemy, and the entire time I've been using it since, I worked with single-circle arrays. The goal was to make a single array do the task by having the appropriate commands in it. They're versatile and highly adaptable that way, and definitely have their uses, expedience aside, but I've been finding the majority can't function either as efficiently or as safely as Materia arrays. The biggest difference is that the Materia use many sub-arrays to define their commands, their functionality, their limits, and even to exclude effects or dangerous reactions. It becomes a series of inter-connected circles which influence one another and the way the base array will behave, and each of the interlocked arrays can be modified to change the effects."

"I see. Then, is it possible to transpose arrays intact into another object?"

"That's where I'm not entirely sure. I know I can take spilled ink or charcoal to create arrays on command, and I used that ability not that long ago, spreading the arrays around an entire room through the connectivity of Materia-style arrays. The energy transferred well, like a domino effect, and the active arrays retained their forms in pure energy once activated, even if the object they'd been placed on had been destroyed. Does that mean I can take all of the Fire arrays and stick them into an Ice Materia, allowing the one Materia to command both?"

"Oh ho ho! It sounds like you may be on to something, there! Here is another question, then. Materia store data to function, as you've said. How much data do you feel one shard can store? And another question—would the existing arrays of opposing powers conflict with one another if forced to share space—Fire and Ice, for example?"

First, Ed blinked, then he sat back a bit as he stared up at the ceiling. "...Good questions. Based on what one of Shinra's scientists did to a series of Materia shards, they can probably store quite a bit of data, but there would have to be limits in some form if the size was to remain the same. Especially when dealing with functionality arrays, not straight, recorded data which has no purpose but to inform. By default, that would limit what things could be combined and in what quantity. As for array conflict, that could probably be resolved with the correct exclusion arrays, which would cause them to take up more of the data space in the Materia shard, but it's a valid concern."

"Here is one more, then," the old man commented, sounding amused. "You know of Materia growth, yes?" At Ed's nod, he said, "How well do you suppose inactive arrays would transfer, and what would it take to make them activate in a Materia shard where there are, say, twelve available commands?"

At that, Ed had to blink again, then grin and say, "Well, that would have to be tested, but I could hazard a guess that there's the chance of a non-Mastered Materia producing an unstable result or of some commands not activating. If the result can't grow further, the best bet would be to have all Mastered ones regardless, since there'd be no way to acquire any missing ones. At the same time, if it _did_ have the ability to grow, the Materia's functionality would have to be very high as it would then become a shard which could be Mastered and produce its own 'offspring', like any other shard."

Bugenhagen chuckled his usual chuckle, then fell thoughtfully silent for a moment before asking, "Why do you want to develop such fused shards, Sentinel?"

"To give myself and my allies any possible advantage in stopping all the things wrong in the world right now. I can't do it all alone, but I have some connections very high up who are doing a good job of finding ways to fix things. They have a lot more working against them than for them, and I'd like to even the odds a little bit."

The old man floated his green hover-bubble-seat over to a nearby window as he said quietly, "The world is inter-connected and the problems it faces aren't as narrow as just the Planet's life force being drained away. It seems you see the situation for what it is, and why I will not condone AVALANCHE as it is." He paused before turning back to the younger man and continuing, "Oh ho ho, it's wonderful to see such a positive move."

"...You know I'll be joining the Turks soon, right?"

"I suspected you may already have done so."

"Well, no, not yet, but I've decided I will. I won't be welcome here anymore after I have, so..."

"That is untrue, Edward. Whatever job you take doesn't define who you are, and you are an ally to the Planet, so you will always be welcome here. Though, it may be best not to wear your Turk suit when you come back to visit, no one here will bar your way, even should you be wearing it. Neo Bahamut himself blessed you in front of much of the population— _you_ , rather than Fuhito of AVALANCHE. It has made many of them question their goals and beliefs. Perhaps knowing you have had success from within Shinra itself will help them see advantage to having allies in the enemy camp, rather than seeing only opposition there."

Shrugging, the younger man answered, "Well, I guess they might, but they've really gotten it stuck in their heads to be anti-Shinra rather than anti-Mako-policies. Thanks for your support, though. If I get time off and can be out of my uniform, I'll...maybe I will come back and visit." The younger man gave a small smile as he tentatively agreed to return, and at least he knew Bugenhagen wanted him to visit again.

"Oh ho ho, that's good!" the old man agreed, returning to his table. "Was there anything else?"

"Er—I was going to go after talking with you about the Materia, but just now, I thought of...How do I actually go about tracking down the pathways I need to modify to get control of my debilitating problem?"

"Oh ho ho! Have you ever meditated, Sentinel?"

"...No..."

"Then that is where we shall begin."

CA

Tired, sleepy, Mako-blue eyes blinked open, then squinted in the bright sunlight shining onto them. Genesis felt like a log, exhaustion weighing down his limbs and slowing his thought processes, and he was more than a little confused about where he was. Slowly, he turned his head away from the bright light—and found himself looking at...his room at Headquarters? And he wore just his green sleep pants...?

"So you're finally awake," Angeal's familiar voice said, making him look towards it. The black haired man stood in his doorway, looking both relieved and concerned at once. It only took a moment for the man to step into the room and sit at his red haired friend's hip. "What actually happened out in Mideel? Sephiroth's opponent, Rosso the Crimson, said Nero the Sable had been sent to your location...?"

Blinking, then blinking again and paling, Genesis asked softly, "Is Sephiroth here, too? I don't think I can tell it more than once, and I already have to do a report on it..."

"Yes, he's here," Angeal said, then turned to the door and called, "Sephiroth, he's awake!"

"Coming," the man immediately replied from the other room.

"In the meantime, where do you keep the report papers? I'll take down the report for you and we'll modify it to how you write," Angeal said, rising again and looking expectantly at Genesis.

The other man blinked in lack of comprehension for a few seconds, then said softly, "Bookshelf, right hand side on the top shelf. They should be in the gray folder."

His taller friend went to the bookshelf and found the folder as Sephiroth came in carrying a tray with some soup and toast on it. Genesis, who still laid tiredly in bed, just stared in mild confusion at the tray, so the silver haired man said, "You need food, Genesis. It is just past noon the day after your mission ended."

Releasing a deep breath, Genesis tried to push himself to a sitting position—and found his body still far too exhausted to do the task. Much to his shame, both Angeal and Sephiroth set aside the things they carried and helped him sit propped against the headboard of the bed, at which point, Sephiroth moved the food tray to his lap. They both sat at his sides as he slowly ate, grateful they'd had the foresight to give him something light to eat—his body couldn't handle more right then, but desperately needed the food.

Finally, he set the tray aside, Sephiroth moved it to the end table, and Angeal opened the folder to begin making notes on the top page about what had happened while Genesis was in Mideel.

"...I'm not sure...I should be completely honest in what happened," Genesis began, making them both frown. "I mean in my report. I'll tell you because—it was Deepground doing it on purpose at two of ours for sure."

"Make it three," Angeal said. "I had to fight Azul the Cerulean. I've never been more grateful for your insistence in using Gravity Materia, but I killed him while he was in beast form."

"And I used Rosso's hyper mode against her to behead her, but that was after over an hour of fighting her," Sephiroth added. "What happened with Nero? We can work out the details of your report once you have told us—but I doubt they would believe it if you tried to remove his presence after our reports."

Shaking his head slowly, the red haired man said, "I couldn't remove his presence and have it make sense anyway. But, this is it." Slowly, he explained what had happened with the insect-monsters, the void spheres, the arrival of Nero, and the finale of the battle. He then drew a deep breath and said softly, "Either I was hallucinating after Nero returned to the Lifestream, or I actually had a _wing_ sticking out of my shoulder blade, and I really don't know—what to think of that..."

The other two young men traded concerned looks, but it was Sephiroth who reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Genesis, wing or no wing, you are still you, and that probably means we will have wings as well—we all share the same cells."

Genesis' eyes moved up to him slowly, then he gave a small nod. "The energy surging through me right then...It wouldn't have surprised me to have had two wings of light like Alexander has, but only one of my wings was coming from him directly. The other was dove-gray and solid...It was still there after Alexander's energy ebbed."

"I think you're right in not wanting to tell the whole truth of what happened, though. If there was one thing I would worry about, it would be Shinra finding out you can create new magic using the Materia we have readily available," Angeal said thoughtfully, looking over the notes he'd written down. "Everyone is used to you doing things like you did with the Reflect bubble and using Flare to give you a push, but what you did with Alexander is another story all together, and you'd probably be sent right to Deepground for testing and experimentation if it becomes known what you did."

"Also, there is a strong likelihood that Deepground has access to all data in the Shinra network, as Rosso knew in advance where you had been assigned and who in Deepground had been sent there," Sephiroth added. "I would have expected her to know Nero's assignment, but not your presence there—unless they have access to everything we do, even such mundane things as mission assignments—and reports."

"Then how would I explain how I defeated Nero?" the red haired man asked, staring up at the ceiling as he leaned back.

"Alexander and Demi 3 while under the influence of Reflect," Sephiroth said. "You were 'desperate' to protect your own life at the unexpected addition to the battle, so you accidentally activated both at once, and Reflect protected you from the backlash."

"...That could work. And you don't have to go into the details of the mechanics of how you worked out what was happening or how to stop it, just that you had determined it was a type of Demi-like void, so reacted appropriately with your available Materia. No report needs all your personal thoughts. I hope you haven't been putting those in this whole time..." Angeal drifted off as he eyed his slightly younger friend warily.

The words prompted a small smile from Genesis as he said, "No, I'm not _that_ detailed. I'm not giving them psych assessments with missions unless they ask me for one later. I suppose that would cover the concerning parts without seeming out of place, so I can write it that way. Thank you."

"So, we'll help you get the report done, then we'll be able to go on our vacations tomorrow," the black haired man said with a gentle smile.

"Angeal, neither of us writes reports the way Genesis does..." Sephiroth suddenly put in. "We are too clinical to sound like him."

Genesis sighed and chuckled as he said, "Just make sure everything's noted and I'll fix it. I have no choice but to write the copy I hand to Lazard, anyway."

Sephiroth gave a faint smile as Angeal nodded and turned to the report, then the silver haired man gave his red haired friend's shoulder a squeeze as he asked, "Feeling better about all that now?"

"Yes, thank you. It'll take some adjusting to, and I don't think I'll try accessing the wing again for awhile, but...I suppose we'll see," Genesis agreed. "But I _really_ need a vacation now."

"Same," both of the others said together, producing light chuckles from the three friends.

By the time Genesis had re-written the report, he felt much better and more alert.

 **Notes:**

(1) Since Rude only says 'more than normal' to Ed as a rule, he operates on the premise that on very rare occasions, he's the only one who can transmit the data, and Vincent doesn't have a phone yet, so he can't text message it.


	31. 31-Fragments

Fragments

Edward, Vincent, and Rude were nearing Gongaga four days after his talk with Bugenhagen and only two after they had left Cosmo Canyon (they had made particularly good time as Ed wasn't 'exploring' this time). Since they had to pass through the jungle, the blond was once again glad of the White Cape which kept the Touch Mes from turning him into a frog. Suddenly, the sixteen-year-old felt a voiceless tap against his mind—the piece of Zirconaide he was carrying on him. When he stopped and reached into the pocket he carried the fragmented Weapon in, the other two men stopped and turned to watch him in curious concern.

As soon as he touched the fragment, Ed directed his thoughts to it to ask, _:What did you need, Zirconaide?:_

 _:Another of my fragments is nearby,:_ the being answered, sending a feeling in the general direction of where the shard was compared to them.

Releasing the shard and looking in the indicated direction, Ed found the Gongaga Reactor in his line of sight. "We missed something last time, Rude," he commented dryly.

"We did?" the man asked.

"Yeah, a Materia fragment is at or near the Reactor here," the younger man said, turning to head through the woods towards his destination. As he'd known they would, the two men followed him as he searched around the Reactor, outside and inside the wall, but found nothing to indicate a shard, so looked over at Rude.

"...Shinra leaves guards sometimes," the bald man said after a minute of pondering.

"You mean inside the Reactor itself?" Ed blinked. His friend nodded, so he looked up at the door. "Do they lock the doors into the Reactors?"

"Was the one in Nibelheim locked?" Vincent asked in reply.

"No, just the last lab door," the younger man answered, then walked up to the door and opened it. "Now that I think about it, that's a piss-poor way of 'protecting' your all-important power supply." Going inside the actual Reactor, he found the route down to the main pump, even as Vincent and Rude followed him closely.

They had reached the main pump by the time they found a monster dropping down on them from above (the first one they'd found, in fact), forcing them to jump back from the pump—which was fine, as it wasn't the pump they were after. The monster was obviously partially mechanical, but looked more like a cross between a motor bike and an ape (1) than it did any kind of machine or monster, and it had a glowing, blue Materia shard on the bike part's dashboard. As the three men saw that, they braced themselves for battle, not expecting the enemy to be all that strong—

Only to find out a monster powered by a destructive-minded Zirconaide could do things no normal monster could do.

The monster was launching nets at them, freezing, burning nets!

And it was very fast and seemed to be able to track all three of them at once, keeping Ed from getting close to it to attack it. In fact, the only one successfully able to attack the thing was Vincent, so the three quickly changed their tactics. Ed and Rude began distracting the monster, Ed especially by throwing magic at its face to blind it, while Vincent jumped to the rafters to shoot at it every time it was clearly distracted from his presence. Those free hits were effective, and it only took four such shots to kill the monster, leaving them free to tug the blue shard free of the bike.

It was then given to Ed so he could 'chat' with the fragment of the being in it. Sitting down, the blond drew a deep breath and braced himself to touch the shard. _Chaos and rage_ , a frenzy worse than the first fragment's. At first, all he could sense or hear was seething, burning rage, enough to start pissing him off, too—if this was what Zirconaide was like in this fragment, it was no wonder the monster was ornery.

Still, Ed had to be able to communicate with the piece of the being in the blue shard, so drew in a deep breath before shouting into that shard as he had the first, _:Will you calm down and shut up already?:_

 _:How dare you tell me what to do, pathetic human?:_ the piece of Zirconaide yelled back a him so loudly it made his mind throb with pain.

 _:I'm a Sentinel, Zirconaide, and I've already found one of your fragmented pieces,:_ Ed answered, grimacing in pain as he knew he had to maintain contact. When a reply wasn't immediate, he added, _:I'm also traveling with Chaos.:_

The rage toned down but didn't go away entirely, and Zirconaide clearly huffed as it said, _:Serves the world right. Fools. A pity the last of the true inheritors of this world will have to die as well.:_

 _:I'd rather prevent them all from dying,:_ Ed began, and felt Zirconaide's rage spike again. He quickly went on, _:Hear me out. I don't plan to stop you from reducing the populations which have gotten out of hand, but it won't fix anything if the whole of the human race is killed. In fact, according to what I know about Chaos and Omega, killing all the humans will make Omega activate, and there will be no life left on this world. Even Chaos doesn't intend to be a harbinger of death, and wants to be able to watch us fix the messes we've made.:_

Zirconaide was clearly still full of anger, but seemed to be considering the words as it fell silent for a time. Finally, it said, _:I will kill people. Many of them.:_

 _:Yes,:_ Ed agreed. _:Amongst them probably the ones who shattered your Materia. All I want is to be able to spare the people who are actively working to fix things. Now that Jenova's root brain has been destroyed, any floating cells are no longer a danger, and many of those people are helping to save the world alongside the ones who aren't carrying those cells. I don't care about people's genetics, though, I care about what kind of person they've chosen to be. Anyone who hasn't chosen to help fix things, even when knowing there's a problem, you're free to kill. Or you will be once your shards are reunited.:_

For a few minutes, Ed waited for an answer, but didn't get one. Finally, he sighed and broke his contact with it, placing the shard in the pocket with its other piece, hoping that would be enough for them to talk. In his mind it would be decidedly odd to have a conversation with yourself, but Weapons were a different sort of being. Maybe it wasn't so disconcerting for them to do a thing like that. Once the shard was safely in his pocket, the teen rose and looked up at the other two men, who watched him with concern.

"All done, or as much as I can be for now. Let's keep going—unless you two want to rest at Gongaga now that we've taken so long to find the shard?" Ed asked.

"We wouldn't have made it all the way to Corel tonight, even if we'd kept moving. We already made it further in one day than we should have been able to, though scaling the cliff walls in the Canyon reduced the travel time through that area..." Vincent commented, looking at Ed. "Gongaga's inn may be the best place to stay. By now, it'll be dusk or later, and the monsters will be a great deal more vicious and likely to attack."

"Gongaga's inn it is," the blond teen agreed, and they headed out of the Reactor.

Staying at the inn turned out to be a good choice, as the first thing they heard the next morning was that a flood had washed out the northern bridge towards Corel the night before. No one knew where the floods were coming from, but they were causing the bridge repeated destruction and were likely to cut Gongaga off from Corel entirely if they kept happening. By the time Ed, Rude, and Vincent got to the area, a damaged merchant truck was just closing their broken rear doors and pulling away, so they could examine the damage critically, seeing easily how far across the plains to either side of the river had flooded.

After a silence while the three stared at the ford—which was now wider and deeper than it had been—Rude asked, "Can you still fix it?"

"Yes. I'll just have to fish for metal because many of those parts were washed too far downstream for me to be able to use as materials," Ed agreed with a small sigh. "I can get the metal out of the rock in the area, but it'll mean I'll have to seek further for enough rock to fix it. Especially with how wide and deep it is now. Also, the depth in the middle means I'll need two support columns, one to each side of the central trench, which is again more stone and more metal."

He paced down to the edge of the new water line and walked several yards in both directions from there, finding his best place to reach materials and to have stable anchors for the bridge supports was about six yards downstream from the original ford. Stopping there, he clapped his hands together in the familiar motion of the 'circle' and knelt to put them down flat on the ground, clearly picturing what he wanted to do with the stone and metal in his range. Light flashed and the materials bent, twisted, and shaped into the bridge he wanted it to be. When it was finished, he rose and blew out a breath, then faced the other two—only to find Rude patting him on the shoulder.

Vincent, on the other hand, ran his hand over one of the bridge rails and asked, "If you can so easily create such amazing things, why do you seem to favor destruction?"

"I don't," Ed answered, and Vincent looked up at him sharply. "Life and death, creation and destruction—they exist in equal measure. I don't favor either, I just do what needs to be done. If that means creating a wall to shield civilians from an attack, then spearing an army on stone spikes in the next moment, that's what I'll do. We needed a bridge, so I made one. That's it. You just happened to catch me when what we needed was to destroy something very, very thoroughly so it couldn't create more problems for us later."

"I see..." the black haired man murmured, and they continued north to Corel.

"I hate deserts..." Ed sighed as they crossed the sand, producing a faint smile from Vincent and a small chuckle from Rude.

"It agreed with you, though," the bald man commented in amusement.

"The Harpy nest didn't help my opinion of the desert," the blond replied dryly.

"What Harpy nest?" Vincent asked with a small frown—only his eyes showed alarm.

"Oh, one burst out of the sand and caused a sink I got caught in, which caused me to fall into the nest. There was an adult still there, and three babies, so I mainly just used Manipulate on the adult," the sixteen-year-old explained.

"And went swimming..." Rude added dryly.

"...You couldn't have held Manipulate while swimming!" Vincent blinked.

"Er...Well, it wore off, but by then, I had gone down to the actual nest more than once and come back up, so the adult sort of—adopted me, I guess," the teen admitted.

"What?" Vincent asked in obvious confusion.

"Haven't you ever wondered why a desert monster gives the Enemy Skill Aqualung? In a desert, when would they have experienced drowning? As it turns out, their nests have deep pools of water in them, and they lay their eggs on the bottom of the pool, which means the babies hatch underwater. The test of their strength and worthiness is to reach the surface alive. They also use Materia shards to mark the location of the nest, which causes a glow underwater so you can see a little bit down there. In that case, I only took six of the Materia shards and left the other two dozen, since animals—and monsters, apparently—have reasons for what they do. So, by my diving down to the nest, taking some of the shards, and coming back up, I sort of got taken as a 'baby' who had the strength to survive," Ed explained, blushing faintly.

"I see..." the black haired man murmured, but both he and Rude were chuckling.

"Oh, shut up," the teen sighed at them.

Not long after, they had reached Corel, and as they passed through the town, Ed felt another tug guiding him towards—the well? "Er..." he began quietly as he stopped and stared at the well in the square.

"What is it?" Vincent asked as the two older men faced him.

"Another of those shards is here. Apparently...in the well. I don't think anyone will be all that happy if I jump down into it, though," the blond explained quietly.

"Howdy, you two," a friendly voice said from behind them, making the three turn to see dark haired Dyne standing there with a dark haired young woman beside him.

"Dyne, wasn't it?" Ed asked to confirm his identity.

"Yup," the man grinned, then motioned at the woman beside him. "This is my girlfriend, Eleanor. Is something wrong with the well, Ed, Rude? And who's your new friend?"

"His name's Vincent," Ed said, then gave Eleanor a grin. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," she smiled.

The teen then looked at Dyne again and said, "I don't know if I'd consider it 'wrong' exactly, but there's a fragmented Materia shard in it, and I'm collecting the pieces. The one we found attached to a monster had given the monster some pretty creepy abilities, so I'm not sure if it could influence the water supply or nearby townspeople."

"No one in town likes to have to come here to get water—it's very depressing," the woman offered. "If it's true and there's some shard of Materia in the well, maybe that's why. Soul energy does affect people over time...A Summon's energy in particular."

"There is truth to that," Vincent agreed. "The other two pieces were angry, though in different ways, so it's possible a shard could hold a different emotion entirely."

"Depression would also be common for someone whose soul and 'body' were torn apart," Ed put in thoughtfully, making the others blink at him in surprise. "Like how you'd feel if your arm or leg had been torn off. I wouldn't be surprised if that was what was happening. Is there a way we can remove it without upsetting the townspeople?"

Dyne's gaze went to the well thoughtfully, then he said, "I'm one of the people who periodically checks and maintains the well, so I could go have a chat with the Mayor about a clean-up and see if I can find it. This would be a good time to do it because no one's using it right now. Do you mind waiting?"

"We're not in a rush," Vincent said as Ed grinned and nodded.

"That would be a huge help, thanks," the teen agreed.

"Okay, then—Eleanor, go make sure everyone has the water they need until supper, and I'll talk with the Mayor," Dyne told her, giving her back a pat.

"Sure!" she agreed, heading away to the different buildings in town. Dyne also headed away to the Mayor's home.

Not long after, two people, a man and a woman, had been to the well to gather a pail of water each, and Dyne returned with some ropes and wearing a harness. It didn't take him long to set himself up and lower himself into the well as Eleanor returned, and the man did what he needed to in the well. Obviously, he still had to do the regular maintenance, but this time, he was going to do a cleaning none of them would usually bother with because it would stir up the muck on the bottom of the well. It took him two hours to do it, and he'd gotten them to pull up some pails of muck to dump in the bin on the far side of the square, but finally, he was done. He was somewhat wet, somewhat smelly, somewhat mucky, but done.

"Whew," the man blew out once he was out of the well. "Maybe we'll want to schedule proper cleaning more often, too, just so it's not that awful next time." He then dug in his pocket and pulled out a blue, fragmented shard of Materia and held it out to Ed. "Is that what you were looking for? Though, you'll have to give it a wash..."

In response, Ed pulled out one of the shards he already had and held it close to the one Dyne had found. "Looks like it," he said as he examined them, and Dyne nodded. "Thanks for your help, and I hope it fixes your problem, too." He took the shard from Dyne and headed for the nearest water source which wasn't muddy, the running water in the inn.

"He'll be back soon," Vincent said to Dyne as the other man blinked after Ed.

"Oh, it's not that," Dyne answered, looking wryly amused as he turned his attention back to Vincent and Rude. "He never ceases to amaze me with his mind, though."

"There is that," Vincent agreed wryly. "Thank you again."

"Of course. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go get cleaned up," Dyne said with a grin as he gathered the ropes and turned to head away.

"Here's to hoping the depression stops now," Eleanor added, then ran after Dyne.

Meanwhile, Ed had gone inside, washed off the shard, and sat down on the floor leaning against the tub as he braced himself for contact with this fragment of Zirconaide. As he touched it with his bare skin, he found instead of anger, hurt and depression and a question of 'why?' The reaction was mild and there was no yelling, but there wasn't really crying, either—it was more of a sense of just quitting, just giving up. For a being like Zirconaide, that was rather disconcerting.

 _:Hey, Zirconaide...why are you so depressed? Just because of being fragmented?:_ he asked of the mind in the shard.

After a short pause, the answer came, _:Not directly, no...To be torn apart and betrayed is a bitter, depressing experience. Why bother trying to maintain people who would gladly destroy themselves and everyone around them? There is no point, they'll all just try to do the same thing again and again, and acts of maintenance will do no more than anger them, self-righteous as they are.:_

 _:I could say you're self-righteous, too—and you are—but you're not giving people enough credit. They just need their eyes opened to the things that are wrong to start trying to fix them, and some are doing exactly that now. The problem is that too many people have learned a path of greed, and to be honest, the good people who want to fix things are outnumbered. One last time, once I've united your pieces, would you perform an act of maintenance on the people who are consumed by greed, leaving behind those who have worked to fix things?:_

For awhile, Zirconaide was quiet, but not for as long as the previous, angry one. Finally, it asked, _:What of Jeh-nova? The sense of the parasite has nearly faded entirely, yet there was never a way to destroy it...And even now, the remains are causing destruction...:_

 _:No. Jenova's brain has been destroyed and the remaining fragments are working to save the world—I know, I'm working directly with one of them on some of those issues. They have free will and free choice. Jenova's genes or not, they made the choice to save and protect—so even with a parasite's influence, there_ is _hope. Will you take that chance?:_ Ed felt sure this one would at least wait and watch, and it proved him correct after a minute or so.

 _:I wish to observe some of these changes of which you speak. Only then will I make a decision of my own.:_

 _:That's fine. Thanks, Zirconaide,:_ he said, then put the shard away with the other two and went back to Rude and Vincent to tell them how things were going—and that they were staying in town overnight. They agreed, so settled in for what remained of the afternoon, evening, and night.

In the morning, they were again on their way north, and near the trail through Mt. Corel when they were attacked by two Jokers and one of the dragonfly-seahorses. Vincent took out the last, but the two Jokers again pelted him with Diamond cards (though at least they did it one on the first round of attacks and the other on the second), making him cry 'Ouch!' again. Rude was chuckling as the two of them took out a Joker each, and when Ed looked at the results of the items he'd been pelted with, he mostly saw varying colors of silver metals.

Going to the circles of items, Ed began gathering them to sort them as Rude started gathering the rest to the teen's location, where the teen had already begun setting them in piles. He asked as the two worked and Vincent watched in puzzled curiosity, "What piles this time?"

"Since almost all of it is silver, I'm separating them into types," Ed answered. "Not whether or not they're worth selling, since I haven't found any of these with no value or use yet, except one pile of something I don't recognize. I know mythril this time, thanks to last time. There's nickel—pretty cheap, but used fairly often—steel, silver, I've found a couple titanium, and the mythril, and the last one there." He pointed to the pile he meant. "Gems I can sell are in the pile next to the silver, and even most of those come out as crystal and diamond. Any—glass beads—are the ones I'm tossing away."

Moving to the pile the teen had indicated was an unknown metal, Vincent picked up a piece of it and frowned in puzzlement. He then held it out to Ed and asked, "Can you make this bullet-shaped?" Looking up in momentary puzzlement, the blond saw the metal fragment and clapped his hands together before reaching up to touch it. A moment later, there was a bullet in Vincent's fingers, and he held it up to his eyes to examine it closely. "Adamantite," he said at last.

"What?" the teen asked, almost done sorting the piles.

"I'm sure the last pile of metal you can't name is adamantite. I used to have bullets crafted from it," Vincent explained. "Its greatest use is in making weapons or armors, but it's not nearly as prolific as mythril and not used as often as a result—though it produces superior quality items. It looks like you have enough here to craft a sword or two, depending on size and style."

"Really..." Ed's brow rose before he grinned while Rude chuckled, confusing Vincent.

 **Notes:**

(1) This monster is actually made-up, since I figure an intact Reactor would still have a guard (or _should_ have one, at least).


	32. 32-Black and White

**A/N:** This one is mainly from Genesis' perspective, but the two groups finally come together in this one! It's also the start of the next arc, but I'm not sure what to call it or where it would actually end, so I won't bother.

Black and White

When Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth, and Shalua (Reeve had wanted Cait Sith back for some modifications while they were away, so she had left the cat in Midgar) arrived in Costa del Sol, they went to an inn Angeal knew—it wasn't like the hotels on the main routes, so was a lot more welcoming and a hundred gil cheaper. It was also in a quieter part of town, but still only a short distance from the shopping areas and the beach. The first few days there were nice and quiet as the four spent some time exploring and enjoying the sun and waves, though it took some effort to get Sephiroth to join them on the beach. Shalua found that especially entertaining, and in the end, it was only her calling him a coward that got him out to the shore.

The night before, Ed had given Genesis a quick call to let him know they'd be there sometime the next day, so while the others had gone out to do their own things—Shalua and Sephiroth to the beach and Angeal to check out some local shops not in the resort area of town—Genesis decided to explore. Since he wasn't at work and it was so hot in Costa del Sol, he was dressed casually in white, soft shoes, dark blue shorts, and a red, button-up t-shirt with a variety of green and purple tropical trees on it. He wasn't wearing his sword, but he had his Wizard Bracelet on, the Materia slotted on it set up differently than if he had both weapon and bracer to use.

As he walked down an alley between a warehouse-like building and the back of a two-story apartment building, he suddenly found one man dressed entirely in black stepping out from around the warehouse's corner in front of him. The man's face was covered with a mask in black with a spiked crest as well, so he couldn't see it. He stopped, having a feeling this was very bad—and a sound behind him made him look back to see another man dressed like the first behind him. Both paced closer to him as he braced himself and debated staying in the middle versus backing against one wall or the other. In all honesty, he didn't think putting his back to a wall would actually help him in this case, it would just hinder his own movement.

When the men dressed in black were about four yards from him on both sides, the one in the front said, "Commander Genesis Rhapsodos, did you know that the moment you were conceived, you were the _property_ of Shinra Company to do with as they willed?"

Blinking, the red haired man had to consider the words before his lips pursed and he said, "In a way, I'm not surprised Shinra thinks they own human beings who work for them or who are born to their employees, but I'm not a possession and refuse to be a slave."

"You don't have a choice, because Shinra _does_ own you," the man replied, his tone maliciously amused. "And thanks to your defeat of Nero, you've attracted Deepground's attention. We've been given all rights to do with you as we will. You could always come quietly, or we can kill you—or you can give us a fight, we'll take you anyway, and make sure you're subjected to the most vicious, painful experiments we can do to you. Now, do tell—how did you defeat Nero? I'm inclined to say you left something out of your report or out-and-out lied, as no Summon has the ability to harm him."

Genesis felt movement behind him and glanced back at the man behind him, who was moving closer. Holding his ground, the red haired man turned back to the one in front and said, "For the record, I have nothing to say to you about my battle with Nero, and as to my going with you to Deepground—you'll have to kill me first, since I have no interest in joining people like Nero, Azul, and Rosso."

With that, he sent out a Fire 3 and Flare, one at each of the two attackers, and bolted past the one in front as they growled in anger. If he was right and these were Restrictors, they weren't going to be easy to beat, and what he needed was space to fight them in. As much as he had skills—speaking of which, Big Guard would be a good precaution, so activated Enemy Skill to apply it to himself—against two Restrictors, he wasn't so certain of his odds. Against one, he wouldn't be nearly so concerned—and he could tell they were following him as he ran down a few narrow streets and alleys.

Finally, he found an open space between several buildings which was somewhat like a courtyard with a concrete layer on it. What purpose it served, he didn't know, but it would suit his current needs, so ran into the middle of it and turned back to his two pursuers. As they chased him, he activated Beta on them, making them stop and waver a bit, then shot off a modified Demi 3 which would hit them both. Somehow, one blocked off Demi 3 and the other shot the Contain Materia spell Break at him, which would also cast petrify—and Reflect wouldn't deflect it. Instead, he dodged to the side and slammed a Demi 3 into the ground to force a chunk of it to flip up, causing the spell to hit the chunk of concrete instead of its intended target.

A Tornado hit him and the concrete, throwing him back hard as he struggled to right himself, managing to land enough on one hand to control his drop so he could roll back to his feet and send another Flare at the pair. That time, both dodged the magic, and were tossed apart by it while only one seemed to take some damage. After that, they spent over half an hour exchanging magical blows before all three paused to draw in deep breaths. Taking a chance, Genesis called for Bahamut to come forth, causing a huge, dark dragon to appear above the courtyard and spit fire down on the Restrictors. They dodged and shot at the dragon Summon, some kind of club or baton in their hands—just one blow from each of them force-dissipated Bahamut, and Genesis knew he wouldn't be able to call him for awhile now.

The men jumped at him with their—clubs, he supposed—raised to strike him, so used the Enemy Skill Chocobuckle to strike one and knock him back as he dodged the other, only to feel a hard impact on his shoulder. The blow sent him flying sideways and to the ground, but using Bad Breath forced the two to stay back while he recovered, used Cure 3 to heal the damage to his shoulder, and slowly push himself up. The battle against both was starting to wear on him if he could be hit by such a blow—or they were just that strong and skilled. He quickly refreshed Big Guard and debated what he should do with them both advancing as Bad Breath dissipated.

Before he could decide, the two vaulted over the remains of the Bad Breath and brought their clubs down on him, but he was able to jump back and dodge to the side, only to feel a rain of rocks striking him—he realized it was a Limit Break. Speaking of which, after that last series of painful blows, which he used White Wind to heal, he had almost reached his own Limit Break, and he had only taken as little damage as he had thanks to Big Guard. They had shown they could block standard Magic, so he decided to play with the arrays of both Contain and Gravity, creating a gravity sink tornado which tore up most of the courtyard and tossed the two men to the other side of it. A moment later, he felt his side explode in pain as one of their Flare spells hit him.

Finally, he was pushed over his limit and into his Limit Break. Rising slowly and painfully to his feet, he lifted his hand upward and called, "Light of the Goddess, grant me your judgment! Apocalypse!" Above him lit a huge, golden sigil like the arrays of the Materia (Alexander's especially was similar, he realized vaguely), and the men who were struggling to rise were frozen in place as the intense light of the Limit Break washed over them. He then swung his hand forward and prismatic magical energy surged from the array above him, bombarding the men with intense waves of non-elemental energy.

Somehow, the energy of his Limit Break broke around one of the two (1), but the other was incinerated with a scream and collapsed to the ground, very dead and already showing signs of returning to the Lifestream.

As soon as his Limit Break energy faded, the man who had been shielded from the attack jumped at him, striking him in the stomach with his club. With a pained yell, Genesis was thrown back over ten feet to roll another almost ten feet over the now-chewed-up ground of the courtyard, coming to a halt on his belly. The pain was getting to him and his vision was starting to go blurry, but if pain had been the whole of it, he'd have fought through it. Instead, his main enemy at the moment was exhaustion, and there was no magical cure for that.

All he could do was watch, unable to look away as the second Restrictor advanced on him. The man clad entirely in black snarled, "You'll pay for that, you little bastard!" He lifted his club to bring it down on the red haired man's back—

Only for an explosion to send him flying right over Genesis' body with a shocked, pained yelp. It only took him a moment to recover and jump back over the younger man's body as he shot forward to attack a man in black pants and a white shirt, but in his exhaustion, Genesis' eyes slipped closed, even as another explosion sounded, then another two. Finally, he got his eyes open again, and saw the Restrictor shoot up at the other man, who was in the air—only to hit another explosion. As the man in black hit the ground and rolled to come to his feet, another explosion—one rather like a plasma blast in looks—hit the Restrictor, making him scream and hit the ground on his back.

Genesis heard the other man land hard on the ground on his feet, so moved his gaze to him—and saw orange hair, sideburns, pale skin, sunglasses—

 _What the Hell?_

"All right, Commander?" the man asked, and Genesis found he had to close his eyes once more for a moment before opening them again to focus on the man, who had taken a few steps closer in obvious concern.

No, he was sure of it now. The man was Kariya—his father. At least, he looked very much like him. Slowly, he struggled to a sitting position, eyes still on the man—

Until a flurry of movement behind him made Genesis' eyes widen as he saw a blade heading for the man. "Move! Tornado!" Genesis shouted as he threw his hand forward, aiming at the blade behind the man. His spellcast hit the orange haired man as well, but as the man had begun dodging to the side, it mostly just pushed him outside the reach of the blade. On the other hand, a white haired fourteen-year-old boy in white pants, a white tank top, and carrying two swords was caught in Tornado.

Instead of the damage he should have taken, he was tossed aside for all of two or three seconds before he bent his blades and got control of his movement, inserting himself into the eye of the tornado. Genesis and the man both stared at him in shock as the boy smirked and energy—pure Lifestream energy, or Genesis was a complete idiot—flared around him and he shot towards the red haired man in a white-green blaze.

There was no way Genesis could move away as the boy broke through the edge of Tornado without losing any momentum, so just raised his arms to cover his head and chest—

 _A sudden sound of shifting rock, a cracking sound, and the sound of debris falling—_

"Nice impact," a familiar voice commented in amusement and interest.

Looking up slowly, Genesis saw the white haired boy standing about ten feet away, and about three feet in front of him, next to where a pile of debris now sat, there was a blond boy with his hair pulled back in a braid down his back and dressed in black pants and a black tank top. The pile of debris was directly between the red haired man and the white haired boy who was attacking him.

A gunshot suddenly rang out, drawing Genesis' eyes to another man dressed in black and with a red cape and long, black hair, pointing a gun at the collapsing Restrictor the orange haired man had fought. He was now sure the second Restrictor was dead, and the man who had shot him seemed completely cold and unaffected. And wasn't he _hot_ (as in, boiling in the heat of Costa del Sol) dressed like that?

"Thanks, Vincent," the blond boy called in a familiar voice to the one with the gun, who turned to the blond and nodded.

"Thank the Goddess...You're here, Ed..." Genesis sighed, letting his eyes fall closed and his body relax. Of course, hearing that the man who looked like the one in the picture of Sephiroth's suspected father was named Vincent confirmed the blond's identity, and he now knew he was safe.

"Genesis!" another familiar voice called in alarm as someone caught him.

Slowly, he opened his eyes a bit to look up at Rude, saying, "You have...impeccable timing. They're tough—those guys. I don't know who...the boy is, but—I can guess. Weiss the Immaculate."

"Who?" Edward asked with a frown, not taking his eyes off the white haired boy.

"Oooh, you certainly are well-informed about Deepground, aren't you, Commander?" the white haired boy said in amusement. "Yes, I am Weiss the Immaculate. You killed my brother, Nero. Until then, I didn't actually _care_ what you did or who you were, but that was something I can't just ignore. You're too powerful and too dangerous to leave alive."

"Deepground..." Ed growled, shifting his feet to brace himself for battle. "If you want him, you'll have to go through _me_ , first!"

Weiss' brow rose and he asked, " _You_? You think someone who isn't a SOLDIER, or even a Turk, stands any chance against me, the leader of the Tsviets, the most powerful member of Deepground?"

"For the record, a call to Veld is all it'll take to have me join the ranks of the Turks," Ed smirked. "And to be honest, after some of the things I've fought—I sincerely doubt you'll be worse than them."

"Heh. Your funeral," the white haired boy replied, lifting his swords in a battle stance.

"Let's see how you compare to a Homunculus!" the blond roared as he jumped forward, sword drawing as he went.

The two boys began a battle of swords, dodging, dipping, ducking, jumping, swinging, and generally not allowing the other to land any blows. It didn't take long for Ed to draw his dagger to use as a second blade, easily keeping up with Weiss' speed. The one point of difference between them was that the white haired boy was physically stronger and had increased regenerative abilities—he had Mako enhancements.

Suddenly, Ed was knocked back and clapped his hands together, putting them down on the blades in his hands instead of on the ground, causing the blades to take shape around his arms and attached to the backs of them. They extended down the backs of his hands in sharp points about a foot long, and the smirk on his face combined with that particular action made everyone shudder. Even Weiss. A moment later, Ed jumped back into the battle with those new blades attached to his arms, and his actions gained superior precision, control, and speed, which evened the playing field against Weiss.

A sudden explosion of light from the Deepground soldier sent Ed flying back with a pained yelp to hit the ground on his back. Instead of the flare vanishing after contact, it stayed, and Ed pushed himself up—then smirked again.

"There we go. Now I know what makes you tick. It took long enough, you brat," the blond told the white haired one, who raised a brow.

"I do believe you've gone insane," Weiss replied, then shot at Ed again, still wrapped in that flare of light.

Rather than move to meet him, the sixteen-year-old clapped his hands together and converted his arm blades back to their original form, then clapped them together again and dove under Weiss' attack to place his hands on the younger boy's chest. Light flared brilliantly as arrays began springing up around Weiss, ones Genesis didn't recognize, and the boy screamed in pain. The blades he held hit the ground as the light spun around and focused on one of Ed's hands, which he closed into a fist as the energy gathered tightly there. When the flow of energy stopped, the white haired boy flopped to the ground on his back, obviously still breathing as Ed stayed still and panted for a minute.

"Ed!" Rude called to him.

"I'm fine," Ed replied, standing up straight.

"What happened?" Vincent asked, stepping over to join the teen.

Weiss struggled to push himself up, gasping out as he did, "What did you do to me?" His breathing was strained, and he began sobbing for no reason he could fathom. He reached for his nearest sword, only to find he couldn't lift it.

"You won't be able to do much until your body adapts to operating without Mako," Ed answered. "I forcibly dragged the Mako out of you." He then held up a yellow Materia shard in his gloved hand and said, "This one was made from the Mako in your body—and it's a completely new Command Materia apparently calling itself Aerial Attack (2). You can never get this back, and even if you could be infused with Mako again, it would be markedly different from this infusion."

"That's impossible! I was born with that Mako inside me! You can't sever something from me which is part of my basic genetics!" Weiss yelled.

"Except that Mako in this form _is not_ part of _anyone's_ genetics, Weiss," the blond informed the younger boy, who stared at him in horror with wide, brown eyes. "This was a scientific experiment, not nature. And you had no choice in the matter. If you want Mako enhancements back, be cooperative and work your way into SOLDIERs' ranks to get their controlled infusions. Otherwise, learn what your own true self and strengths are, Weiss. Then again, you should probably do that, anyway."

"Would someone please fill me in on what just happened?" the orange haired man finally cut in plaintively. "The only ones I recognize are the Commander and Rude!"

"Genesis!" a new voice yelled in horror, and everyone turned to see a large, black haired man running forward to gather the red haired man in his arms, followed closely by a silver haired man. Both wore shorts in black, but the black haired man also wore a sleeveless shirt in pale gray.

The orange haired man felt a tug on his hand, so turned to see a fourteen-year-old girl dressed in a burgundy short tank top and short skirt, her red hair held back in a high ponytail. She switched her grip from his hand to the front of his shirt and yanked him forcibly down to her eye level, which effectively put him on his knees in front of her, and she proceeded to pull off his sunglasses.

"What is with all these freaky-strong brats?" the man asked again, making the others look at him in some bemusement as they saw his predicament—and several of them chuckled as she whipped her hand up and slapped him hard. "Ouch! What was that for?" he asked, truly having no idea.

"For running off and deserting us! Mom, and me and Shelke! You asshole!" the girl yelled, hitting him again. "You were alive this whole time and you never came to see us, you never took care of us—did you even know Shelke was kidnapped? And what about just giving up on Sheridan!"

"Whoa!" he gasped, catching her hand as she moved to slap him a third time. "Hold on—I get that you're Shalua now, but how do you even know about Sheridan?"

"That would be me," Genesis answered tiredly, making the man look over at him.

The man gazed at him critically for a minute, then his eyes widened and he gasped, "She told me you were dead! Took me to a grave and everything! What in the—?"

"Can we go somewhere more private to discuss this further?" Edward asked with a small sigh, turning to look at Weiss, who was still struggling to rise. "Rude, could you take Weiss, please? I don't think he'll be able to walk any time soon, and we _really_ don't want to give him the chance to run off, either."

Rude rose and went to the white haired boy, lifting him in both arms to carry him away, even as the black haired man who now carried Genesis similarly rose and said, "I'll lead the way to the inn we're staying at, since everyone here seems to be allies other than Weiss." He quickly took the lead, the rest following him as the girl kept a tight grip on the orange haired man's wrist and pulled him along with them.

"Hey, I'm on house arrest...I can't stay away for long..." the orange haired man complained.

"I'll clear it with Veld," Rude said over his shoulder.

"You're another Turk?" Ed asked the orange haired man curiously as he went over to retrieve a shoulder-strap bag from the ground behind Angeal and Genesis.

Suddenly, Genesis, the black haired man carrying him, and the silver haired man began chuckling. "Now that is a small world indeed," the silver haired one said.

"And we should have realized it sooner," Genesis sighed tiredly, then yawned. "I'm so tired. Rude, you'll have to introduce everyone..." He drifted off, right into sleep.

"Oh, dear," Rude said quietly.

"You could always just let us take care of the introductions while you clear your fellow Turk's presence with Veld," Ed commented.

For a moment, the bald man was quiet, then he nodded and said, "Good idea."

"There, problem solved," the teen said in amusement, looking around at the group marching through the streets. "Just one thing—why the Hell were Deepground after Genesis?"

"Because he beat Nero the Sable," the black haired man carrying Genesis answered. "Nero had been infused with stagnant Mako, giving him a void power."

"Stagnant Mako?" Ed asked in alarm. "That's bad. What happened?"

"Genesis—used Alexander and Gravity at the same time while shielded by Reflect and destroyed Nero by doing so. We had been worried they would go after him for that, to kill or to capture, and it seems we were right," the silver haired man said.

"Wow—I'm glad Genesis won that one, despite their new-found interest in him," Ed sighed in mixed relief and concern. He also noted how the man had seemed to switch what he'd been about to say and thought the situation wasn't as simple as regular usage of Materia. He'd have to ask Genesis about that later...

 **Notes:**

A quick note on Cait Sith in my story—he charges automatically from proximity to the Reactors, absorbing some of the energy the Reactors expel in excess. The closer he is to a Reactor, the further his signals transmit and the more they can pass through, as the more power he's absorbing at once, the more power he can devote to maintaining the transmission. In the FFVII main game, the moogle robot is a necessary addition to Cait Sith because the cat is going outside the range of all Reactors, and needs the moogle to act as its power supply—something which will now never happen in this story. Three guesses as to why Cait Sith would now never need that adaptation. Here's a hint: it has to do with why Reeve kept him. :D

(1) We know next to nothing about the abilities of the Restrictors, so I'm playing with this and what experiments were potentially done to them to make them what they are.

(2) Yes, I created another Materia, a Command type which basically gives the skills of characters known as 'dragoons' in other Final Fantasy games (ie Kain in FFIV, what was known as FFII back when SNES was the main game system or Freya in FFIX) to 'jump' on one turn and come down with a very powerful attack on the next. Those who chose to join SOLDIER and get the controlled Mako enhancements Ed may leave in people's bodies, but Weiss has way too much and not by choice (he's assuming that by his age).


	33. 33-Sorting the Details

Sorting the Details

Soon after, they had all gotten back to the inn, and the innkeeper was pleased to have a full house, assuming all of them would be staying. Genesis was put to bed, Weiss was allowed to rest in the same room, and Rude stayed to watch over them while calling in the situation to Veld. The others gathered in the main room after storing bags and unnecessary gear in their rooms, and the innkeeper decided to focus on the now much larger supper she had to make. Once the group was settled, they'd be able to talk about what was going on. Ed was sitting on a chair beside the fourteen-year-old girl, who had pulled the orange haired man down beside her on one couch, the silver haired man sat in a chair beside him, and the two black haired men sat on the other couch, the one with the red cape closest to Ed's chair.

"So, I'm Edward Elric. I have no idea how many of you, if any, recognize the name," Ed said. "But Genesis and I have been trading off information for some time."

"He's told us about you," the big, black haired man said. "I'm Angeal Hewley, and that's Sephiroth." At the last two words, he motioned to the silver haired man in the chair beside him. "Apparently, Genesis and I owe our lives to your research."

"I don't consider it an owed favor, I just didn't want to see either of you dead, let alone like that," Ed answered, shrugging then looking at Sephiroth. "Thanks for helping them, though."

"They are my best friends. I could not have lived with myself if I had not," Sephiroth answered.

Nodding, Ed motioned at the man in the red cape. "Then you're the one who would be most interested in meeting Vincent Valentine."

Sephiroth's eyes shot to the named man, peering at the man's face in puzzled confusion for a moment—before his eyes widened and he said, "You have—changed much, yet not at all. I can see why Genesis asked me how I actually define the word 'alive'..."

"The likeness is uncanny, though," Angeal admitted, looking between the two. He then looked at the girl and asked, "Do you want to introduce yourself or let me do it?"

She made a face and said, "I'm Shalua Rui, Genesis' younger sister and this idiot's daughter. All we know about him thanks to an old photo is that his name's Kariya."

"Shalyn never knew any more than that, either," Kariya sighed. "And that was always a code name which the Turks just let me keep when I joined them, though they sometimes call me 'Legend', too."

"So what was that about house arrest?" Angeal asked with a raised brow.

"Before I joined the Turks, I was an anti-Shinra terrorist," Kariya answered. "That past came back to bite me, and while I still did what I'd been told to—partly—I killed someone I wasn't actually supposed to have killed. Veld put me on extended house arrest rather than the punishment I should have gotten, and I've been locked in an apartment here since." (1)

"You still haven't told me why you abandoned us," Shalua told him with a glare.

"Men don't usually have good reasons for that—I never heard a good one from _my_ father, either," Ed put in derisively.

Kariya looked up at the boy and said, "If he had no good reason, I'm truly sorry for that, but I was already playing with fire by being with Shalyn and being an anti-Shinra terrorist. The more extreme the actions I was taking against Shinra, the more likely it was that all of us could have been killed. I had actually thought—" He cut himself off and paused to purse his lips, eyes rather moist for a moment. Finally, he went on, "When Shalyn told me Sheridan was dead, had been killed, I thought my actions were the reason, Shinra's retaliation against me to kill my child. I dared not stay or leave any evidence I was still seeing Shalyn after that, for fear they would be killed, and—Turks aren't allowed to openly have spouses or children."

Ed was about to say something in anger, but Kariya held up his hand in a 'wait' position. "If you don't believe me, ask Veld. He also has—or had—a family, and was forced to forsake them just by being a Turk. Not even because they'd done anything wrong, but because they lived in the same town an information leak had come from, and to this day, I find it hard to believe anyone 'misheard' Veld's orders. Then, he was also ordered to cover up the fire-bombing of Kalm. I could only watch Shalua and Shelke from a distance, and with my last near-year of being on house arrest, I'm woefully out of the loop on recent news. My position is precarious enough as it is without adding to it."

With a huff, Ed sat back, then grudgingly admitted, "Your reasons are a lot better than my father's. Not entirely justifiable, but—at least logical and because you _actually were_ trying to protect your family."

"Is it true you could call Veld and tell him you want to join the Turks, and he'd let you, just like that?" Kariya asked curiously, digging in his pocket until he could pull out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter.

"Yeah."

"...Are you going to?"

"Do you have any idea how much crap is wrong with the world, all of which requires money, a position of power, and the right contacts to fix?"

"Turks don't have power."

"Not directly, but indirectly, they have more of it than even I could put to full use. I've already tested the theory, just by the results of being brought into contact with Genesis—which has apparently also triggered more things which are wrong and more allies to work against them."

"...So why does it matter so much?" the orange haired man asked as he took a big puff of the now-lit cigarette, then just left it in his mouth as he leaned back against the couch.

"The world's survival depends on it. Contacts, resources, money—power. I need that, and Genesis agrees that these things all need to be fixed or we won't have a world anymore. If you want to just ignore the danger to the world, be my guest, but doing so puts your life in danger when I summon the maintenance Weapon to cull the population," the blond teen replied dryly, pointing at the bracer on his upper right arm. (2)

"What's a what now?" Angeal asked in alarm.

"To prevent Chaos from becoming a harbinger of death, the world population actually _has_ to be reduced," Vincent put in, making the others look at him. "It can't be wiped out, or that act will trigger Chaos as well, but the being Ed has been communicating with has made it clear that several populations, not just humans, need to be cut down in size or they'll destroy the world. The safest and most logical way to do that without triggering Chaos is to make people aware of what's wrong, see how they react, shelter the ones who actually try to do something to fix things, and destroy the ones who turn their backs on their own lives to pursue greed. By having the entity in question do the pruning, it won't trigger the stagnant Mako or Chaos, and he's even managed to secure the survival of the people who are infused with Jenova's cells, so long as they make the choice to save, not destroy."

"What does that mean?" Sephiroth asked, feeling a little ill suddenly. "About the people infused with Jenova's cells?"

"That's because the Weapons all came to exist as the Planet's antibodies—to fight the parasite known as Jeh-nova, the Calamity from the Skies," Ed answered, leaning back against the back of the chair as he eyed Sephiroth and Angeal. "I don't give a damn about people's genetics, though, I care about their _actions_. The being, as a Weapon, is hard-wired to destroy Jenova and all its cells, which would normally include the two of you, but as soon as you started helping Genesis, I saw you acting on your own will, not Jenova's, or even Shinra's. I insisted the being wait and watch, and judge appropriately, not based on genetics, but based on what kind of person each individual has proven to be. I sincerely doubt people like Hojo or Hollander or President Shinra will ever be judged as worthy, so they'll die by the Weapon's hands as part of its regular pruning while you both will survive by continuing on your current paths. Change those paths to destructive ones, and you'll die, too."

A long silence followed the words, then Sephiroth asked slowly, "And how is 'a path of destruction' judged? I fight; it is all I know. That is typically thought of as a path of destruction, which would mean I am doomed regardless."

"Weapons don't see the world the same way as humans," the blond replied evenly. "They know 'destruction' is sometimes needed—that battle, death, killing, tragic accidents, will happen. Even the Ancients, who were peace-loving, had some of their number knowledgeable in combat—but against Jenova, that small number wasn't enough. Fighting, even killing, to a Weapon isn't a 'path of destruction'. What _is_ a path of destruction is the wanton destruction of necessary building blocks to maintain the Planet as an entity. The Mako Reactors count as wanton destruction of the Planet's necessary building blocks, but you didn't build them and have almost nothing to do with them. Wanton murder counts as destruction, but if killing one person lets me save thousands, I'll take the mantle of 'murderer' to prevent greater destruction, as much as I hate killing in the first place. (3) Deepground and scientists like Hojo are wanton destruction of people's psyche, which also destroys the Planet's building blocks."

"What do you mean? How does destroying people's psyches hurt the Planet?" Shalua asked in complete confusion. The others looked just as confused.

"What is the Lifestream?" Ed asked quietly, and the others frowned—until Angeal's eyes widened.

"The Lifestream is composed of the souls of everyone who has lived and died in the world," he breathed. "Stagnant Mako is formed from negative thoughts and feelings, so when people die in that state—like from experiments in Deepground or by doctors like Hojo—the negativity of their states is allocated to the stagnant Mako pool. The more people who die in that state, the faster the pool fills, and the sooner Chaos is activated."

"Exactly," Ed agreed, and the others' eyes widened in realization. "So, that has to be stopped. The difference is this—some people actually believe it's okay to leave humans to suffer, that such a thing will save the Planet, and others believe it's fine to drain away the world's life so humans' lives are easier. Both are wrong. What's good for one is good for the other, and what's bad for one is bad for the other. It's impossible to separate humans, animals, plants, and the Planet, because they're all one entity, the fragments of the Lifestream the Planet loves and wants to save, but doesn't know how. That's why we have to do it. That's why we have to save people _and_ the Planet."

While everyone stared at him in horrified amazement, Vincent commented, "Unfortunately, that view won't go over well with Shinra."

"I'm not expecting it to," Ed answered dryly. "But right now, I'm not actively acting against them in anything other than finding out research they didn't want known and stopping Deepground. Since the Turks and SOLDIER's top brass all agree with that, I can't be specifically targeted, and the only other thing I'm after currently is information."

"On what, if you don't mind my asking?" Angeal asked curiously.

"Yes, since it seems you already know everything there is to know about Shinra," Sephiroth added dryly.

"Not even close, but no, that's not what I'm actually after," the blond replied, looking amused. "I learned a long time ago to look for ways to _fix_ problems, not stop at a patch job like those idiots in AVALANCHE want to do. First, the Mako Reactors need to be made much less inefficient, then we need to find an alternate source of energy and start building it, and finally, we need to find a way to _return energy to the Lifestream_. I'm also working on something to do with Materia to make it more functional for my allies to use. I know Genesis will love the idea, but I need a safe place and means to test it, because there's a good chance the first few tries will—blow up."

"Why would you risk it if it's so dangerous?" Kariya asked in concern, taking another puff of the cigarette still in his mouth, then blowing a ring of smoke in Ed's direction.

"Because the Materia I hijacked from Weiss is literally completely new and formed of its own accord from Mako the Lifestream currently considers 'in excess'. That validated the idea that new forms of Materia _can_ exist, can be produced, and not just through natural means like a Mako spring. With them able to reproduce from themselves, which doesn't take anything from the Lifestream, making some new types and reproducing them should be both useful and practical." Ed looked very smug as he said it. "For example, if you're currently using four Materia for Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth—wouldn't it make it so much easier and more practical to have all of them in one Materia shard?"

Kariya, Sephiroth, and Angeal all gave impressed whistles as Sephiroth asked, "Is that really possible?"

"I believe it is. The initial trials to work out the details are what may go boom—for example, Fire and Ice are opposing elements and trying to put them into one Materia shard might actually require adapting the arrays to exclude reaction to each other. In the meantime, the first attempt might blow up," the teen explained. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone else I'm doing this—I need to be the one to decide who gets the products. You can introduce to me people you think may help, but not to tell them what I'm doing or offer them something like the fused shards."

"Wait, I think Shinra has done something similar recently—we just haven't had much chance or need to look into it," Angeal commented.

"From what I know of Shinra's scientists and their 'adherence' to scientific method, I'd bet everything I own that their method is faulty and their results flawed. I'm planning to make something done properly and without flaws," the blond teen replied dryly. "Much more useful and versatile—and much more dangerous in the wrong hands."

"In that case, your request sounds fair, but to be just as fair, I think you should tell Tseng at the very least about the fused shards," Kariya commented. "He's—"

"I know who he is, I spent over an hour on the phone with him talking about Deepground almost two weeks ago," Ed replied dryly. "I sure wouldn't want him as my enemy, that's for sure." He paused to consider what Kariya was saying, then asked in wry amusement, "Why Tseng instead of Veld?"

The orange haired man gave a wry grin of his own and said, "As much as I respect Veld, the one with the capacity to do what you need done is actually Tseng. It's not something I have words to explain, but from my meetings with him, he's the main information dealer and manipulator in the Turks, and he's the one everyone's loyal to, more even than Veld. It's only Tseng's great respect and loyalty to Veld which keeps Veld in his position as the leader of the Turks."

"I see," Ed nodded. "Once I meet him formally and get some feel for what he's like in person, I'll talk with him about that, then. I don't want to exclude the Turks from the chance to get some support, too, and I know Tseng in particular wants Deepground taken down."

"Can we change to lighter topics now?" Angeal asked, looking faintly amused. "Not that the fused shards are depressing to talk about, but that's a 'heavy' topic, and we technically came here on vacation. And we've kept Sephiroth and Vincent from talking for long enough, I think."

Both named men looked startled by the sudden focus on them, and Kariya asked, "Why would they need to talk?"

"There's a good chance Vincent is Sephiroth's father," Ed answered in amusement.

At first, the orange haired man opened his mouth to deny the statement, then closed it and admitted, "He'd be around the right age since Veld knew him...But really?"

"I would prefer him to Hojo, honestly," Sephiroth answered dryly.

At the words, Vincent rose and said, "As much as it's been awhile since I've interacted with people besides Edward, I rather think anything we have to say to each other warrants a private discussion." His gaze was on Sephiroth as he said it.

After a short pause, the silver haired man also rose and said, "This way, then." He then led the way to his own room at the inn, Angeal smiling after them.

"Good, at least we got them to properly acknowledge each other," Angeal commented, which made Ed snort.

"Yeah, they seem to share the trait of avoidance," the teen agreed, producing a chuckle from the black haired man. His gaze then went to Kariya and he asked, "How do the code names work in the Turks? They all seemed like mostly normal names to me, so that took me a bit by surprise, especially since they all seem to use those names even when they aren't working."

"They do because it's basically a new identity which makes it almost impossible to find or track them to their origins," Kariya answered. "The head of the department knows the original names everyone in the Turks had, but they usually only know each other by the name designated by the department head. Even Heidegger doesn't know their original names, only the designation the Turks' head gave them."

"So why did Vincent just have his own name?" Ed blinked.

"That was before the new system was instated," the older man answered, shrugging. "The story basically goes that within five years during the late seventies and early eighties, over half the Turks and their extended families were murdered by anti-Shinra terrorists—yes, the ones I was working with at the time. That was part of the reason they hated me so much and had dubbed me 'the Death God of the Battlefield', and it's part of the reason Turks technically aren't allowed known family these days. One of those who died was the head of the department, so a new head was chosen and began working out the code name system, but was killed on a mission. Veld took over and fine-tuned the system, with only a few exceptions to keep people guessing—Tseng and I are exceptions to the usual system he uses, with maybe one other exception, while the rest of the current Turks follow the pattern. And no, I don't know the pattern. Vincent was one of the ones counted in those disappearances and murders since he 'died' in that same timeframe."

"Oooh...So that means Vincent could actually rejoin the Turks, since no one would know him as anything but the code name Veld would give him other than Veld himself and those of us sitting here?" Ed asked with a crafty grin. "That will be useful—very useful!"

"Should I be asking when you plan to officially join up?" Kariya asked—only for Ed's PHS to ring.

Checking the number, Ed's brows rose into his hairline before he answered and asked the caller, "What can I do for you?"

"Rude just informed me of the attack on Genesis in Costa del Sol," Veld's voice came back to him, sounding rather tired. "Deepground?"

"Yes."

"And you have Kariya with you?"

"I do."

"Keep an eye on him, as he's still technically under house arrest, so I have to account for all his movements. Have you got a reason I could justify him not being in his own residence?"

"Would visiting his daughter and making sure his son is okay qualify?"

"...Run that by me again."

"Genesis and his sister Shalua are Kariya's kids. Or is that not allowed as a Turk?"

There was a silence as Veld considered how to reply and Kariya gaped at him with wide eyes, only barely managing to catch his cigarette in one hand before it hit the carpeted floor. Shalua had a puzzled frown on her face and Angeal looked amused, having realized, as Kariya did, who had just called Ed.

"Well...Since he's not on duty and Genesis is a Shinra employee as well—directly—I think it can be—squeaked by the regulation police in Heidegger's office. I can't say anything about his daughter, though. So, can I count on you to act as his guard?" Veld answered at last.

With a smirk, Ed asked in reply, "Can't I only do that if I'm officially a Turk?"

Angeal chuckled at the words, Kariya gave his head a shake with an amused grin and stuck his cigarette back in his mouth to take another puff, and Shalua blinked, then looked at the two men in anger. Kariya mouthed 'later' to her, so she huffed and nodded.

Again, Veld had paused, but then he asked simply, "Have you made your decision?"

"Yes, and yes," the teen answered.

"Then consider yourself on duty, Eden. I'll send a nearby operative with your uniform, and one for Rude since he's apparently guarding a Deepground member you captured. I'll backdate your hiring to the date you gave us the information you had on Deepground," Veld stated. "I need a verbal report from you now so I can react appropriately, and you can hand in a written one to whoever gives you your uniform or when you get back here. I'll be assuming your duty as Kariya's guard will be in effect until Genesis and the others return to Midgar, and I expect you to return with them. Now, preliminary report."

Ed gave an impressed whistle, but said, "Rude and I arrived in town with a third person shortly after one o'clock to see Bahamut above part of the city. We headed for it knowing something was wrong, and arrived in time to see Genesis and Kariya in battle with two men dressed entirely in black and one in white. One black one was dead, the other severely injured, but the one in white as yet unharmed and in the process of a direct attack on the Commander after being caught in Tornado." He then basically recited what had happened after that, but modifying what he told the man to seem like he was doing the same thing as Genesis—channeling through Materia. And he left out the Materia shard he'd created from the Mako in Weiss.

"That boy you fought is something else," Veld said when Ed had finished. "You sound like you've given reports like that before."

"I have."

"Where and from whom?"

The question caused the teen to hesitate for a minute before sighing and asking, "What did you think of finding no data on me, at all?"

"I had assumed you were already hiding your identity for some reason, and there are a lot of those out there."

"Yes, but I actually gave you my real name."

The man was silent for a minute, then Veld said, "As long as you're loyal to the Turks, I neither care nor see any reason to pursue the lack of data. The amount you've done for us—for Shinra—without even being hired is cause enough to look the other way, and no one but I myself and those who've already known you by your original name will ever know it. The only restriction I place on such a situation is that, should your mysterious past ever catch up to you, I expect you to be forthcoming and truthful about it so we can take appropriate actions to deal with it."

"Understood," the sixteen-year-old agreed. "Just one more thing to sort out, then. You know Vincent Valentine, yes?"

"I do. Or did. He's been dead for two decades."

"Actually, he isn't, but Hojo experimented on him so he hasn't aged since then. I don't know if he'll want to join the Turks again, but if he does, would you take him and give him a code name as well? He's a useful guy to have around."

Veld was silent at first, then said, "Ask me again in a few days." He then hung up. (4)

 **Notes:**

(1) Kariya has only been on house arrest for almost a year (I'm estimating my current date to be around September 10 of 0000, and he was put on house arrest on November 10 of 1999), and I find it hard to believe they didn't have him on real house arrest for at least some of the time he was on it (about 4 years in canon). If they did just let him wander around in a resort town for the whole time, it was never actually a punishment, so in my story, he was supposed to be on actual house arrest for the first two years before Veld let security slacken and he could start going off to the beach to play lady's man. By those terms, he shouldn't have left his apartment at all, but I doubt anyone who had been on a battlefield would have ignored the explosions.

(2) Ed's still in contact with them, if anyone's wondering, so they're privy to his thoughts, and everyone on the Planet sort of expects callous reactions like that. Ed's actual thoughts on the matter won't come for awhile yet, when he's not in contact with them for an extended time.

(3) Which is essentially what he did to Father, though that was largely on the basis of bringing his brother back, not saving the world from Father...Sorry, but I don't see Ed as some angel who always wants what's right for everyone, he's just as capable of doing very selfish and hurtful things—he just only does them very rarely. And usually, he DOES want what's best for the largest number of people.

(4) No, this wouldn't be unusual for someone who just found out someone he'd thought was dead is actually alive, especially someone he'd personally known and worked with many years ago.


	34. 34-Newest Turk

**A/N:** As of now, Edward will only be called that in very rare circumstances—he'll be either Eden or Ed for the rest of the story.

Newest Turk

As Ed returned his PHS to his pocket, Shalua burst out, "So what the Hell was that all about?"

"That, my dear, was Veld hiring Ed to act as my guard so I can be outside my designated residence for house arrest," Kariya answered dryly, making her gasp and stare between the two of them.

"Wait, don't Turks have to go through training and stuff before they can officially become Turks?" she asked, glaring first at Kariya then at Ed.

The teen shrugged and said, "They don't have anything to train me _in_ , not even writing case reports. I'll have to start as a Rookie, probably, but I'm skipping the Trainee phase because of the skills I've already proven to them."

"So, what code name did he give you? I mean, since you'll have to start getting used to using it," Kariya commented, pulling his much shorter cigarette from his mouth to eye it for a moment.

"Eden," the teen smirked in pure amusement, and the two men's eyes widened.

"What's that mean?" Shalua asked in confusion.

"He named me after the original paradise," the blond explained. "In writings I knew, very ancient ones, the original home of the Ancients was referred to as 'the Garden of Eden', and was the place their journey began from. (1) Now, that could mean it's actually the same thing as 'the Promised Land', and if that's the case, it's referring directly to the Lifestream. The Garden of Eden is the souls leaving the Lifestream to come here and grow the plants, tend the animals, and take care of a world which should have been a true garden of peace and paradise, while the Promised Land is the act of the souls returning to the Lifestream, to their creator."

"...Did you get that out of the same books Shinra got their data on the Promised Land from?" Angeal asked suddenly, his gaze troubled.

"Yes. All of your scientists seem to be missing or ignoring some crucial data on basic world functionality—simple things, things any scientist worth their salt should know, like the difference between a symbiont and a parasite or a product and a bi-product, and sometimes, I even wonder if they know the difference between day and night or left and right. None of this was hidden, it was just written in slightly flowery script by a race which didn't have the words to better describe the world around them. I looked at it and knew what it meant in short order just by applying critical thinking to it, especially when taking into account how much they revered the Lifestream and the Goddess Minerva," Ed chuckled.

He then saw somewhat puzzled expressions, so decided to humor them. "They were nomads. There were only two places they built as cities, and both of those were built due to Jeh-nova coming down from space, so they would be able to keep an eye on her landing site and store an item to be used as a last resort against her. Otherwise, they all traveled throughout their lives, drawing Lifestream to areas of land to replenish it, to end a drought, to end a flood, to moderate snowfall, to grow plants. They were true stewards of the world, spreading the Garden of Eden to this living realm, and returning to a place of rest and prosperity at the end of their lives—and where do all things go upon death on the Planet? The Lifestream. As such, the Promised Land is their return to the Lifestream after a life of work to tend the world."

"...Then Shinra's only reason to seek the Promised Land...is for greed. They've convinced themselves there's a place, a tangible location they could go to called the Promised Land, where they want to build a city 'bigger and better' than Midgar, where they claim everyone would be able to live in peace and prosperity. But if the Promised Land is death, they either plan to kill us all or lead us on a wild goose chase just to get more money and leave so many more people to suffer in slums," Angeal sighed.

"Does it really surprise you, knowing the President allows Deepground to operate?" Ed asked curiously.

"...I had thought they were more honorable than that..." the man admitted wryly.

"Greed is a complete lack of honor, Angeal, by its very definition," the teen snorted. The others blinked at him in something like amazement. "It's never sated, nothing is ever enough, which is why people would convince themselves such a place exists. And, well, 'the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.' But that doesn't mean everyone in Shinra is consumed by greed, either. I honestly believe there are people right in their midst who would love to be able to do more to help the Planet, to help people, but aren't being allowed. Those honorable, kind people are ones I'd like to be able to give resources to so they can do the things they would most like to."

After a silence, Shalua asked, "Did Veld know about all of that when he named you 'Eden'?"

"I don't think he knows the whole story, but he wasn't naming me that by accident," Ed answered. "No one gives a code name for no reason, and he'd apparently chosen it some time ago, intending to give it to me when he hired me on."

"So...he wanted you that badly, or he already knew you'd join?" Kariya blinked, snuffing the cigarette on the bottom of his shoe, tossing it onto the table, and pulling out another one to light it.

"Both, probably," the teen chuckled. "Like I said, all I'd have to do is call him to get hired, but as it turned out, he needed someone to account for you while you were out of your residence. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get some rest. And Kariya—while I don't exactly care about 'watching' you, _stay here_ or I'll have to."

The others nodded as he rose and headed for a room to sleep. A few moments after he was gone, Shalua began pelting Kariya with personal and family questions, so Angeal excused himself to check on Genesis.

CA

Supper had been an interesting affair, as they were quite a mixed group and the two most unusual members of it had rejoined them—Sephiroth and Vincent. While Vincent didn't need to eat, he was still capable of doing so, though only in fairly small amounts, which at first concerned Sephiroth. Rude was still watching over Genesis and Weiss, but everyone else kept the place lively, and the innkeeper was very happy about that. If it was because of the extra income she got or the activity level, she never clarified, but she certainly encouraged merriment.

Not long after the meal, everyone had again gathered in the main room to talk, and their discussions were mainly light-hearted. After a time, they heard voices near the entrance, then a nineteen-year-old man in a black suit and with his black hair pulled back in a ponytail walked into the room, two packages under his arm. There was a dark stone on his forehead, he had a distinctly Wutain look to him, and his eyes were sharp as he gazed around the room.

"Tseng," Sephiroth greeted the man, who gave him a nod before his eyes stopped on Kariya with a slight frown.

"You actually helped the Commander of your own free will? Or did you know he was your son this whole time?" Tseng asked the man, still frowning slightly.

"No, I didn't know it was him, but those guys he was up against were bad news—and Tseng, like it or not, I'm a Turk now, and I'm _not_ working against Shinra," Kariya replied, cigarette in his mouth as seemed to be his usual.

"...Very well," the Wutain sighed slightly, then his gazed moved to Ed—and his brow lifted slightly. "Eden, yes?" he asked the blond evenly.

"Yup," the teen agreed with a grin. "I thought Veld was sending someone nearby, and the last time I checked, you were in Midgar?"

The man chuckled and tossed him one package. "There were—complications."

"What kind?" Ed blinked as he caught the package easily and set it down on his lap, gaze on Tseng.

"Nothing too serious, but it was better for me to leave Midgar for a time, and as I'm responsible for the Deepground case—which I'm guessing everyone here now knows about—I needed to come here anyway. Veld just had me bring along your first uniform and one of Rude's spares, rather than diverting our only other active agent in the area from their current task, leaving no one to watch a target for another case," Tseng explained. "I'll have to speak with the boy you captured later, as well, so I'll be here for a bit while I investigate. Also, once you're free from guard duty, if at all possible, I'm putting you on the Deepground case, since the one thing we need to be able to do is find their base—the one thing we've so far not had the luck, or the skill, to find."

"Sure thing," Ed agreed, then looked at the package for a moment before asking, "Do you have specific report forms, or do I just write it out myself?"

"We have a general format, but otherwise write freehand," the older Turk answered, brow raised slightly again and lips twitching in faint amusement. "Nothing too complicated, starting with the date, the case code if you know it or a case keyword or a few if you don't, your code name, and the report. If you need to summarize or recommend anything, place that at the end and note beside your name that you've left a summary or recommendation or both at the end. Veld said you already know how to write a report if the verbal one you gave him was any indication, so I leave the contents in your hands. Just make sure to be thorough in your notations of what was going on at the time, because Turks rely on small clues or notes like 'someone was watching' to determine our next actions."

"Makes sense. I can write it up tonight or tomorrow and have it to you sometime tomorrow, probably," the blond answered, opening the package and pulling out the black suit jacket.

"Prompt, are you? That's a good start," Tseng noted, then glared as Ed made a face and Kariya chuckled.

"I'm not prompt, it's just that I know better than to leave a report—if I don't do it right away, I probably won't get it done _at all_ , then I wind up stuck with weeks' worth of reports to do at once, and—just—no. I'm not going there again," the teen told him.

"From a scholar, that seems odd," Sephiroth commented dryly. "Your reports are a great deal easier to write up than ours as well, by the sounds of things."

"He's a scholar who goes stir crazy if he can't go out and fight every now and then," Vincent commented, which produced a snort from Shalua. "Reports are just boring to write, so getting them done immediately is generally the best habit to get into if you want to be effective."

With a sigh, Tseng admitted, "For the most part, I suppose that's true. They _are_ boring to write for most."

Ed levered himself up and said, "Well, I guess I'd better get changed," then headed for the room where he'd rested earlier. To his surprise, Tseng followed him into the room so he faced the man with a raised brow as he asked, "Doesn't someone need to watch Kariya, technically?"

"We'll leave the others to do that, since I'm sure they all know not to let him leave," Tseng stated, then reached over and pulled the right side of Ed's sleeveless shirt down, which in turn revealed the scaring around his shoulder. "What is this from?"

The teen's gaze became shadowed and wary, then he pulled away, sighed, and began undressing to change, though he left the bracers he wore on. "Do you actually have any idea what kind of power Materia have—or rather, the 'commands' which make them function?" All the same, he had to commend the man for noticing the nearly completely hidden scars when no one else had (at least, no one had said anything to him or even looked at them), so thought the man was really as formidable as he'd sounded on the phone some weeks ago now. Oddly, that was sort of an assurance and helped him trust the man more.

"...I confess I know only as much as I need to know to use a few of them on my equipment, nothing more," Tseng admitted. He then stared as he saw Ed's metal leg.

For another couple minutes, Ed stayed silent as he changed into his new uniform (though he opted to keep his boots, given how well they hid his auto-mail leg), thinking about just how much he was willing to trust the man. Finally, done changing and with the tie draped around his neck, Eden turned to the older man and said, "This doesn't leave this room—it's completely off the record unless it suddenly 'comes back to bite me' as Veld said."

With a nod, the man agreed, "I will not repeat what you tell me, verbally, written, or otherwise, to anyone else unless lives depend on that knowledge."

Slowly, the blond nodded, feeling like he could trust Tseng's word, then turned away from him, shoulders hunched. "I was once a very stupid fool," the teen said quietly. He still felt a need for caution, but it was easy enough to edit the story to explain what needed to be explained. "I really thought I'd succeed where everyone before me had failed, and it led to a terrible accident, one I dragged my brother into as well. Even though Materia can't rebound, using the arrays which make them function without using the Materia can—blow up in your face, usually causing severe injury or death. Because of me trying to do something impossible...I lost my leg and I effectively had to stick my brother in an isolation tank for five years. I'd have lost my arm, too...but my brother sacrificed himself to allow me to—keep it, even after everything. I started looking for some way to fix what I'd done, and in the process, I got dragged into a war against some—psychotic guy who tried to destroy my home. That was a few months ago, and it was when my brother...died."

He turned back to face the man, seeing his wide-eyed stare, and went on, "But I don't remember what happened after a certain point in the battle against that guy. There's a blank spot in my memory between then and my waking up outside Fort Condor a couple days before Freyra found me. I don't know if I was able to fix anything, and if I did—what did I sacrifice to do so? It's that one little thing which worries me the most, because it may just be able to come back and bite me." He then paused and tapped the shoulder the scars were on. "The scars specifically came from another prosthetic—fixture being destroyed. The same scarring will be under my leg ports, too."

When the younger teen stopped talking, Tseng found he had to draw in a deep breath before he could proceed calmly, asking, "What do you mean by 'ports'?"

"My limbs were special ones made by a doctor who—is not _here_ ," Ed said. "They move like normal limbs because they're a mix of mechanics and neuro-technology which function directly through my nervous system. In other words, my leg moves because my brain tells it to, not because I drag it along. They were called auto-mail as they were largely used by injured miners and the local guard forces in the area." He was modifying the extent and reach of them somewhat, but he rather had to if he wanted to be able to keep them from knowing he came from another world. "The problem is that, while the ports themselves can grow—they were made to—the leg limb doesn't, so I need to find another doctor who may be able to figure out how to reproduce another leg for me before I outgrow this one."

"Mechanics and neuro-tech—" Tseng suddenly stopped and muttered, "A hedonistic cat, cybernetics—maybe..."

"What does a hedonistic cat or—cybernetics—have to do with my leg?" Ed asked with a frown. What _was_ cybernetics, for that matter? He had found a lot of technological references while looking up the other things he'd needed to, but he'd never heard of cybernetics before.

Tseng stepped up to him and took his tie to tie it around his neck neatly as he said, "The head of the Urban Development Department seems to have so much skill with mechanics, engineering, and programming that he can build a robotic cat which can actually feel itself being petted and become a hedonist. I'm not entirely sure why Shalua and Genesis didn't bring Cait Sith '1' with them out here, but trust me when I say if anyone would be a good place to start, it would be with Reeve after what he's managed to do with those cats of his.

"We also have a branch of medicine and scientific technology which is still being developed but seems to have some similarity to your auto-mail—it's referred to as cybernetics and isn't publicly available yet. In some cases I've heard of, it equates replacing lost body parts with mechanical ones, but I'm not entirely sure your leg operates on the same premises or principles as cybernetics, so it may not be a great idea to try mixing them at this point. I'd also be wary of mixing them because our knowledge of cybernetics isn't very advanced yet. It's functional enough to work for Veld and an odd few others, but there are still issues with it, and one of the ones Veld mentioned to me is random bursts of pain from the connection points, like the cybernetics are being rejected."

"That definitely doesn't happen with auto-mail..." By then, the tie was tied neatly, making Ed blink as Tseng dropped his hands. Reaching up to touch the neatly knotted tie, the teen said, "Thanks."

Nodding, the man replied, "You look surprisingly good in our uniform. Maybe you'll want to change your hairstyle, though, since your current style seems odd with a suit."

"...So a ponytail?" the teen asked, reaching up to pull the tie from his hair.

He was somewhat surprised to see the man turn faintly pink at seeing him with his hair down, (2) but the man answered in a perfectly even voice, "You certainly wouldn't be the only one to wear a ponytail."

So, with a shrug, the teen gathered all his hair into a ponytail at the back of his head and tied it off, turning to let Tseng see the look with his hair tied in a high tail similar to Tseng's own rather than the braid he'd had it in before.

"Better," the man agreed, nodding as his color quickly returned to normal.

With that, they returned to the main room, and nearly everyone was shocked by how Eden the Turk looked, but found the look suited him very well all the same. Tseng then headed back down the hall with Angeal to see Rude and check on Genesis and Weiss.

CA

The next day, Genesis woke up feeling better than he had the last time he'd magically exhausted himself—only for his eyes to focus on the white haired boy, who was sitting up in the next bed, staring down at one of his hands. At first, the red haired man was about to panic, but then realized the boy had no weapons on hand and wasn't even paying attention to him. Slowly, he sat up, and the boy's eyes moved to him in surprise and carefully hidden uncertainty—if Genesis wasn't so familiar with such a stance and feeling, he'd never have seen it. It seemed Weiss was actually more worried about him than he was about the boy.

"Oh, good, you're both awake," a familiar voice said from the door, and both turned to face it—only to see Ed at the door, wearing the Turks' black suit, white shirt, black tie, and his heavy, black boots with his hair in a high ponytail. He looked faintly amused as he met Genesis' gaze. "How are you feeling, you two?"

"Pretty good, considering," Genesis answered wryly. "Why are you dressed in a Turk uniform? I thought you hadn't joined yet."

"Veld had to move fast to put a guard on Kariya to excuse him being away from home while under house arrest, which meant getting me to do it," Ed answered. "He gave me the name Eden, so it's fine if you just keep calling me 'Ed'."

The red haired man had to chuckle at the words, then ask, "Did he—Kariya—say anything about why he left his whole family behind?"

At first, the teen frowned, then said, "I think it's better if you hear that from him. I'm not going to play middleman when I'm biased by my own father's actions."

"...Oh," Genesis answered with a startled blink.

Ed then looked at Weiss and asked, "And you, Weiss? How are you doing?"

Tentatively, the younger boy replied, "I'm not...feeling so weak in the limbs anymore, but I...my body had adapted to running on high levels of Mako. I could feel the energy pumping through my body, and now it's not there...It's disorienting."

"I'm not actually surprised by that," Genesis nodded. "I didn't always have Mako in my body, and the transition from not having it to having it can be—bad. It's effectively controlled Mako poisoning, but it's also having increased senses, strength, speed, agility, and reflexes. Trying to figure out how to open a door without breaking it is a whole other learning curve. Going back the other way would require similar adaptability, but by learning to increase the force of turning a doorknob rather than learning to decrease it."

"Is it really worth it to get Mako injections, though?" Ed asked curiously.

Both actually looked a bit amused as Weiss said, "That depends on who you ask. I didn't mind the strength it gave me, or the regenerative abilities that came with it, since in Deepground, that's sort of a necessity for survival. Believe me, we get hurt _a lot_ there, even someone as strong as me, and a lot of that is in our training missions—every time we have training missions, several members die, of the normal, weaker ones."

"Oh, that sounds horrible!" Genesis stared. "Why would you follow them if they treat you like that?"

For a minute, Weiss paused, then shrugged and replied, "I don't know anything else."

"Then let's let Sephiroth spend some time with you—he's much the same and is only recently making choices of his own," Eden suggested, and Weiss blinked at him in surprise. "Believe me, you and he could learn from each other, and you'll understand each other's difficulties. In the meantime, what can you tell us about Deepground?"

The white haired boy gave his head a shake. "I know my way around, I know where traps are set, and I can either destroy them or just have them not affect me, but I don't know the codes to pass through safely. I've never been allowed in the experimental area. Also, there were some traps and locks I couldn't bypass. I was taken through the building leading to the exit blindfolded to help capture Genesis. Obviously, that didn't go very well for Deepground—if what I saw was any indication, he could easily make it in Deepground and become a Tsviet, assuming his mind could handle our way of life. We were deep underground and never saw real sky until now, when we were let out for these missions, though we had a VR system which simulated sky. Only the Restrictors ever left, usually to kill people or to retrieve experimental subjects. (3) None of us knew the results until someone new was introduced to Deepground."

"Diagrams of the underground area will help," the new Turk said with a grin. "We'll figure out where the entrance is eventually, and how to get inside. The better-prepared we are at that time, the better. Especially if my thought is right—but that's for another discussion. Kariya, Tseng, and I will be heading to your battle site as soon as Rude gets back to watch you two, so enjoy." Genesis and Weiss just stared at him, so he gave a wave and left the room.

 **Notes:**

(1) I figured this would be a good addition to the Cetra's scenario, but the only part which has any confirmation is 'the Promised Land' part, and even that isn't stated to be the same as how I'm presenting it. On the other hand, I couldn't resist naming Ed 'Eden' for some reason, so I needed the phrase to actually exist somewhere on Gaia.

(2) Just to reiterate, there are no pairings planned for this story at this point (that is, for the entire first part for sure, and I'm strongly leaning towards having none in the second, either, with the possible exception of having Zack and Aeris start dating, nothing explicit). Tseng's character just decided to drop hints, then promptly ignore them again because everyone knows Edward Elric on a crusade doesn't notice anything romantic. Whatever Tseng decided to do in this story is mainly only functional as a story gimmick and isn't to be taken as any sort of 'pairing'.

(3) This is happening seven years earlier than when Weiss and Nero, dressed as SOLDIERs, went to retrieve Genesis after he fought Zack for the final time in Crisis Core. I'm assuming that most of the experimental subjects are still not 'controlled enough' to be allowed to leave, so it's mainly only the Restrictors who go out, and the releases of Rosso, Azul, Nero, and Weiss are technically not the normal progression of things because they could have just run off much too easily.


	35. 35-Dangerous Plan

Dangerous Plan

An hour later, the three Turks—even Kariya was in his full Turk uniform after they stopped by his place (he wore his with his jacket not quite fully buttoned, had white shoes, and had put on shades)—arrived at the courtyard where Genesis had fought the two Restrictors alone until Kariya had intervened. Tseng moved a ways into the chewed-up space, sharp eyes gazing around at the damage critically, but Kariya and Eden mainly stayed where they were, at the edge of the damaged ground.

"And three men somehow did this?" Tseng asked at last, crouching to pick up something small and red off the ground.

"I looked at the Materia on Genesis' Wizard Bracelet, and I sort of think a lot of the technical damage was his doing while he tried to defend himself from two powerful attackers," Eden answered, pointing at one slab of concrete in particular. "For example, if Reflect couldn't block a spell aimed at him, the concrete would have been the next most handy barrier." The slab he'd pointed to was marked with slashes of ash from a Fire-type spell, such as Flare. "And I did some of it because I almost always do."

"How would he have broken the ground before Summoning Bahamut?" the Wutain man asked with a slight, puzzled frown.

"Apply a gravity sink to the ground. What happens to said ground?" the blond teen asked dryly in reply. Kariya just watched the two like a spectator at a tennis match.

After a pause to consider the words, Tseng nodded. "What else did he have on him at that time?"

"No weapon, just the bracer. It had Bahamut, Alexander, Fire, Gravity, Contain, Enemy Skill, Restore, and Barrier. As far as I can tell, he didn't call on Alexander, but likely used the rest frequently in that circumstance, and the one time he tried using Bahamut, it got wiped out in short order. By then, I don't think he had energy to waste on having the same thing happen to Alexander."

Blinking in surprise, the black haired man turned to him and asked, "Those were all he used against two Restrictors?"

"I'm pretty sure he used a Limit Break, too," Kariya put in, gazing at Ed with some degree of respect. When Tseng's eyes went to him, he explained, "Just as I was getting here, he called out something about light of the Goddess and an apocalypse, then a sigil of some sort lit above him, froze the men in place, and blasted them with energy. I couldn't really tell anything about it except that it seemed to be non-elemental damage, more like raw Lifestream, and it actually killed one of the two."

"Can you remember exactly what he said?" Ed asked with a small frown.

"That he called down an apocalypse rather says it all," Tseng cut in dryly.

"Does it really?" Ed asked, brow raised. "To the best of _my_ knowledge, the actual original meaning of 'apocalypse' is to 'uncover', or to reveal knowledge (1). So, since I'm pretty sure he knows that, calling on the Goddess as he apparently did, what was it he was 'uncovering', exactly? What turned a revelation into an attack?"

"Er, well...Let's see..." Kariya began, gazing out at the battle zone thoughtfully as he called the replay to mind. After a minute, he said, "If I've got it right, his exact words were, 'Light of the Goddess, grant me your judgment, apocalypse.' It wasn't complicated. The sigil, on the other hand, I couldn't replicate."

Nodding, the blond said, "Sounds like he's so damned sure of himself that he's willing to risk his own life to defeat his enemies."

"What?" both Tseng and Kariya asked in confusion.

"He called down judgment, revealing of favor from the Lifestream," Ed answered.

"Wouldn't it only judge his opponents?" Kariya asked with a puzzled frown.

"I'd have to see it—unless Genesis himself knows exactly what he's doing—to know for sure what it's doing, but I'm pretty sure it judges every living thing in its range and either determines it as 'acceptable' or as 'unacceptable', then damages the 'unacceptable'," the youngest of the three shrugged.

"Is that why it didn't work on Sephiroth in their combat practice?" Tseng asked in mild surprise. "Because it judged Sephiroth as acceptable, so didn't attack him, despite the fact that they were fighting one another at the time?"

"It also might not have worked because Genesis doesn't see Sephiroth as an enemy, fighting or not," Ed pointed out dryly. "But yes, it could well be that Genesis' Limit Break just wouldn't work on Sephiroth, even if they were seriously fighting. Or whether it damaged him or not could depend on his mental state."

"Can the Lifestream actually judge a mental state?" Tseng asked with a slight frown.

"Yes. There's such a thing as stagnant Mako, which is formed by negative thoughts and feelings of people. If there was no such thing, I'd hold the same view as you—it would be impossible for the Lifestream to judge—but because different feelings create different types of existing Mako, I'm sure it's sentient enough to judge the mental states of the living, too."

"...Mind blowing..." Kariya gaped, and that time, his cigarette hit the ground. "And you just—do that?"

"Sure do!" Eden chuckled, looking back at Tseng. "So, have you seen what you wanted to see?"

"I believe so," the older man answered, taking a last look around the area. "I just wish we could fix this, since I doubt Shinra will bother—this isn't in the resort area."

"Tseng—don't tell anyone about what I'm about to do," the teen said, then looked at the orange haired man. "You either, Kariya. I'm going to heavily modify the Earth Materia to make it do what I want it to do—put this back together. I'd rather the extent of my control and understanding of Materia didn't become too widely-known."

The black haired man joined Kariya on the unbroken concrete and said, "I confess to being curious about just how much those arrays only you and Genesis seem to be aware of can be manipulated. I already know Genesis does it, especially with Fire."

Nodding, Ed clapped his hands together and knelt, smoothing the rubble of the courtyard back to a flat, cement ground cover. As the light flashing across the ground cleared, Tseng gave an impressed whistle, his eyes on Ed with an intensity the younger of the two found unnerving when he turned his head to look. The sixteen-year-old rose and faced them, tapping the Earth Materia slotted on his sword.

"I manipulate the ground a lot more than anything else, so stone, metals, soil, those are the things I can manipulate the best," Ed said. "Genesis favors fire, so that's the element he can manipulate with the greatest ease. Either way, you need to know the arrays and how to adjust them to change those effects, and with how few people know them, I'm not really surprised only he and I can do these sorts of things. The _last_ thing we need is for Deepground to know the full extent of our abilities to manipulate the arrays. At the same time, they might find out about Genesis' actual degree of skill in that regard, and I'm a little surprised no one took exception to his changing the effects of a Fire Materia before now."

"For what it's worth, that's a valid question," Tseng agreed. "But why would they find out about his actual degree of skill? I was under the impression that is well-known."

"We might have to let them take him to find Deepground," the teen answered.

"Wait a minute, you'd put him in that much danger?" Kariya suddenly glared.

"Not without him knowing and not without a plan in place to guarantee our success," Eden replied sharply. The other two blinked, but Kariya was still scowling. "I'm not going to be careless or try to get my friend killed, Kariya, but if the entrance to their base is proving so hard to find, I would ask him if he'd be willing to be bait. If we don't find them soon, Weiss will wind up back there, and there's people like Shelke—your other daughter—who have been taken there recently and could be rehabilitated. What they're doing needs to be brought to an end, and even as skilled as I am, I'm not omnipotent, especially near Reactors."

The orange haired man spun to face away from him, but Tseng asked sharply, "What do you mean, 'especially near Reactors'?"

"I can use and manipulate Materia around them like any other person, and my fighting skills remain intact, but there are abilities I have which I can't use around them. I rely on those skills a lot, but have been re-training myself to use Materia efficiently as well, knowing I have to rely on it in places like Junon and Midgar. I could have gotten in trouble in Nibel if I hadn't been aware of that issue, so I'm grateful Genesis had the foresight to inform me as soon as possible," the blond shrugged.

With a succinct nod, the Wutain man said, "Let's go back to the inn, then. We'll have to see what you're able to figure out in Shinra Headquarters before we resort to allowing anyone to become bait."

"I can't believe you're seriously considering putting my son in that much danger!" Kariya glared.

"Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds when you're talking about a trained SOLDIER who has fought in Wutai?" Tseng asked him dryly.

"You could always return to the Turks and come with us so you can watch over your kids, Kariya," Eden suddenly put in with a funny little smirk.

"Oh, don't give him ideas," Tseng sighed tiredly.

After a moment, however, Kariya burst out laughing and said, "Back to the inn, then! I'll need to convince Veld to take me back!" He snatched up his cigarette, re-lit it, and led the way as Eden and Tseng brought up the rear, the former with a grin and the latter looking a bit bemused.

"I'm not sure that was a good idea, Eden, I'm really not. He's too much of a loose cannon, and his loyalties are questionable at best," Tseng commented quietly.

"Tseng, even a loose cannon has uses, good ones—I'm actually a case in point. And he's got three very good reasons to stay loyal to Shinra now—Genesis, Shelke, and Shalua. Especially since I rather think we won't be able to take Shelke away from Shinra now that she's in, only place her in someone else's care."

"...I suppose there's some truth to his loyalty towards family..."

"Why are you so—opposed to him?" Ed asked suddenly, feeling puzzled by that point when the man seemed to get along reasonably well with nearly everyone.

There was a silence, then the Wutain Turk answered, "One of my first cases after I joined the Turks wound up pitting me against him in battle while he was actively working as an anti-Shinra terrorist. He had a reputation as the 'Death God of the Battlefield', the most feared Turk killer to ever exist—he's single-handedly responsible for about seventy percent of our losses for a fifteen year span before he was caught. That time on my case, though...he _did_ kill another, experienced Turk in front of me. (2) To this day, I'm not sure how I survived with as little damage as I did, since I was barely a Rookie then, it was like he just walked away because I wasn't a 'challenge' to him. I didn't realize 'the Legendary Turk' was one and the same as the Death God of the Battlefield until the incident which resulted in his house arrest. The result is that I have a bias against him, and for good reason after facing him on the battlefield."

"I see...I guess I can relate to that after some of my own experiences, but...He really doesn't seem to be the person you fought against anymore. Is it worth holding on to that when he's an ally now and apparently has been for years?"

Tseng didn't answer and there was no expression on his face, but his gaze was focused on Kariya, who was still ahead of them, a spring in his step as he whistled a cheerful but completely toneless tune. On occasion, the orange haired man reached up to snatch his cigarette from his mouth and tap the ashes off it, and had even started blowing smoke shapes. Most of those were strings of circles, but both younger Turks blinked when they saw a bird-like shape emerge.

"Hey, Tseng, I have an idea about what we can do with Weiss. Interested?"

"I suppose that depends on what the 'idea' is. So?"

CA

As they arrived back at the inn, Ed's PHS rang and he saw Veld's number, so answered with, "What do you need, Veld?" The other two looked sharply at him, stopping just at the doorway—a good thing, apparently, as Weiss had been just on the other side of the door and had jumped back in shock as it had opened.

"You said Vincent Valentine was still alive?" the man asked, getting right to the point.

"Yes. Well, after a fashion. Why?"

Silence fell for a minute, then he asked, "Have you witnessed his skills personally?"

"Depends on which skills. He's one of the best sharp-shooters I've ever seen, and can jump higher and further than any human—even the ones with Mako enhancements. He's fast and agile, steady on his feet and with his gun, and because of the experiments done to him, he can go places and do things the rest of us can't. I'd rather not get into those details in my current location, though, so if you want to know more, I'll find a private room." As he was talking, he pointed warningly at Weiss and motioned him back from the door. Tseng and Kariya stepped inside, which made him back up by default, and Ed followed them inside.

"...Do you think he would want to rejoin after all this time?"

"I haven't asked him specifically, but he's at loose ends now, so it wouldn't hurt to ask him."

There was a sound not quite like a sigh, then Veld said, "No, I'll call Tseng and have him act as my intermediary. If he accepts, Tseng will have instructions. To be honest, with the number of things which have spiraled out of control recently, we need as many old hands back as we can get."

"Does that mean you'll take Kariya back if he wants to rejoin?" Eden asked impishly, making the man in question grin and Tseng sigh, even as Weiss stared with wide eyes.

"I'll check his file for the exact dates, then get back to you on that. Chances are the answer will be a 'yes', and the only question will be when I can release him from house arrest. I'll be in touch again later." He then hung up, so Ed also ended his side.

"So, he just needs to verify the dates for your house arrest, Kariya, and when certain date-related conditions are met, you'll be requested back at work," Ed told him with a grin, and Kariya smirked and gave a thumbs-up.

"Looks like you're outnumbered, Tseng!" the man laughed, heading inside, even as the black haired man sighed.

Tseng then looked at Weiss and asked, "What made you think it would be a good idea to try to leave?"

"I wasn't trying to leave. The innkeeper told me to go outside and get some sun because I'm too pale. She did it to Sephiroth earlier, too," the fourteen-year-old answered with a small pout. (3)

"Why don't you humor the woman, Tseng, and sit outside with him for a bit?" Ed asked impishly as he bolted past Weiss and sought out Genesis.

"Oh, for—" he heard Tseng mutter behind him as he left, and suppressed a laugh.

Not long after, he found Genesis and Angeal in the very last room at the back of the inn, sunlight shining on the pair as the black haired man rested his hand on the red haired one's shoulder. Genesis sat in a plush armchair while Angeal stood in front of him, gaze almost apprehensive. "Am I interrupting?" he asked with a blink.

Genesis looked up and smiled, then shook his head. "Sorry—this is twice in a week I've been downed by magical exhaustion. I'm not in the best frame of mind right now."

"...Maybe this is a bad time to ask, but do you know what your Limit Break actually _does_ when you activate it? I mean—most people don't know the true meaning of 'apocalypse', but I'm pretty sure _you do_ ," Ed said, shutting the door and moving over to stand at the older man's side.

"Yes, Ed, I know what I'm doing—what I'm risking—by using it. But it's never failed to protect me, to leave me unharmed. I call on my Goddess because—that's just what I've always felt I needed to do. As for the array which appears when I use it, when I looked at it this time, I noted many similarities between it and Alexander's base array. Since I recently started manipulating Alexander's array, the similarities were—eerily obvious this time," Genesis explained.

"Wait, what are you risking?" Angeal asked in concern.

"On a technicality, my own life with all my enemies' and all my allies'," Genesis answered quietly, and Angeal's eyes widened in alarm. "Everyone in a certain range is judged, and attacked if found unworthy by the Goddess. You and Sephiroth have never been harmed by it, nor have I. The Restrictor who survived wasn't because of her mercy, it was because he had some kind of defensive shield I had never seen before. It bore no resemblance to Reflect or Big Guard, or even Shield, and defended against something which can't be defended against. He was also immune, for the most part, to spells like Flare and Tornado, which Reflect doesn't repel."

"Well, at least you know what you're doing, so I won't caution you about it," Ed agreed before Angeal could say anything. "You said you had papers on Deepground? Maybe I'll just read those and we'll wait to talk about anything like the arrays and other things going on."

The red haired man nodded and reached down to a bag beside his chair, pulled out some sheets, and handed them to him. "They can only be read with light behind them, since they were written in invisible ink—but they came to me from Reeve, and if Tseng found out, Reeve and I would both be dead. At the same time, I'd like to get the information to him..."

Taking the papers, the blond gave a nod and said, "Leave that to me. You may lose these copies, though."

"Sephiroth has memorized them, and Angeal and I know the important parts," the older man replied, and Angeal nodded.

"I actually think it'll be one less weight on Genesis if you take that," the black haired man said quietly.

"Oh, speaking of Reeve, he says he's looked again at the Mako Reactor diagrams and can see ways to make them much more efficient, so all he has to do is convince the President he'll be making more money by increasing efficiency. After what he's done for me...for Shelke...I'll put my faith in him, you know?" Genesis added as Ed turned away.

The younger man looked back with a small grin and said, "That's good to know, especially since Tseng recommended I start with him concerning another issue I have."

Genesis snorted, then began chuckling as he asked, "How many issues do you _have_?"

"Um, of personal ones, I think that's the last one I need to address, and fairly soon," Ed replied dryly, then gave the two a wave and walked out.

Going to the room he'd claimed as his for the duration of his stay, Ed held the sheets up towards the light spilling in through the window and began reading. He felt ill by the time he was done—it was almost as bad as reading the 'ingredients' list for the Philosopher's Stone. Still, he understood why the data would be important to Tseng, and how it could get both Genesis and Reeve killed, so he thought about it for a bit, then rose and picked up his nearly-finished report on the Deepground attack in Costa del Sol. He finished it, then noted additional information on Deepground he'd come across after the last discussion he'd had with Tseng and Veld about them, with a note refusing to reveal his source, at the cost of his and his source's life.

He then took the data Reeve had written on Deepground and re-wrote it to sound like his own words from his own perspective, rather than from Reeve's. The writer's identity was too obvious if he left things written that way. Not long after, even though his hand was sore, he'd gotten it all done and used his Fire Materia to destroy the original copies. He then rose to find Tseng and hand in his report.

The quest didn't take long, as he and Weiss were sitting on the edge of the sidewalk just down the street, the man asking, "Are you sure you don't want to go inside?"

"Oh, no—the tingling doesn't feel like it's burning, it actually feels very nice," Weiss answered, face turned upwards towards the sun. "You know, it actually feels rejuvenating, healing."

"Are you really one to judge that after living underground your whole life?" the older of the pair asked dryly.

"I've been injured, healed, burnt, and who knows what else for my whole life. Do you really think I can't tell the difference between something hurting me and something healing me?" the boy asked in amusement.

"Well, now, that depends on a lot of things," Ed commented, leaning over Weiss to meet his startled gaze. "Like, people can easily put things in food—not just poison, but dangerous objects—and you'd never know it until you had already eaten it. Sunlight is good for you, and probably more for you than for people who always lived in it, but that doesn't mean your skin can actually _handle_ it. You'll probably burn if you stay out too long, and because your body is absorbing the nutrients in the sun at the same time, you won't be able to tell the burning is happening. Also, remember, your body won't heal with the speed of Mako enhancements anymore."

"...Oh. Then...I should just take short times outside frequently?" Weiss asked curiously.

"It would probably be best until you get used to the sun," the blond agreed. "And you've probably been outside for too long already today."

Nodding, the white haired boy sighed, pushed himself up, and went back inside, so Ed handed his report to Tseng before the black haired man could also rise. He sat down beside the other man as his fellow Turk began reading, and just waited for the other shoe to fall. Could he weather the storm he was about to unleash? And he had no doubt it would be a storm, particularly where the source was concerned.

To his surprise, the man read through the whole thing, then sighed and dropped his head into one hand, rubbing his eyes as he propped his elbow on one knee. "I won't ask. I really want to, but I won't. Losing a source this good would be—let's just say I'd rather not tempt fate. I'm starting to see a pattern here and actually have a good guess as to what happened, but—no. The important part is the contents. We can confirm the data on Weiss, Nero, Azul, and Rosso is true—Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth fought each of the others respectively, and you fought Weiss. Genesis fought the Restrictors, and just what I know so far of that battle confirms their strength, especially knowing about Genesis' Limit Break. Based on the rest of this..."

When the Wutain man stopped, Eden answered, "We have our work cut out for us, and a small force would be asking for trouble walking into Deepground's lair."

"Yes. It looks like they're operating out of the Shinra building, but from where is a huge question. Reactor 0 is what powers Shinra Headquarters, but _no one_ knows where it is, not even Heidegger or Scarlet. That leaves the President, and I doubt he goes there often, if at all, or Deepground themselves. I wouldn't want to go in there with anything less than every available SOLDIER First and Second, and most or all of the Turks. Especially knowing your skills will be restricted anywhere in Midgar."

"Which means we'll have to seriously consider having Genesis be the bait, as that justifies the two forces working together on a large-scale mission."

"Yes. But...Leave me be for awhile," Tseng sighed again, waving him away.

Ed rose and went back inside the inn, giving the man the time he needed.

 **Notes:**

(1) Some trivia on Genesis' Limit Break also included the original Greek meaning of the word apocalypse, which was what I was referencing there. Of course, Ed's world being as similar to ours as it is (way more than Gaia is to either ours or Ed's), I would bet there's a country on Ed's world, past or present, which also used 'apocalypse' that way, and I'm basically implying that the Cetra _also_ used it that way.

(2) I find it hard to believe Tseng was working on one of his first cases against terrorists alone when it's noted he faced the Death God of the Battlefield, a known Turk killer, _on the battlefield_. As such, in my story, he was working with a more experienced Turk who Kariya killed, resulting in Tseng's difficulty in dealing with him and his suspicion of him.

(3) Considering who Weiss is, as himself, he actually has a very mild personality—a very strong and driven one, but a mild one. His mildness is going to be the main reasoning behind his adaptability in the new situation he's found himself in.


	36. 36-Gift of the Goddess

Gift of the Goddess

Everyone had more-or-less gone their own ways that evening, though somehow Weiss found himself in Sephiroth's company, Genesis had a chat with Kariya while Shalua watched on, and Vincent sat with Ed for awhile. Rude had disappeared and Tseng hadn't come back inside until both returned together quite late. Angeal had also gone out, but had come back much earlier than the other two men, and had been carrying a few small plants in pots he could tend.

Morning had seen Genesis sitting up, just opening a book as Ed crashed on the couch next to him, apparently unable to sleep or woken by nightmares. As such, the red haired man began reading LOVELESS out loud—and the blond found himself drifting into sleep to the melodic way the other man read, especially when he was focused on the poem specifically. Oddly, it was soothing Ed to listen to it, even though he wasn't much one for poetry or fiction stories and understood next to none of it as he was drifting.

By the time he was coming back to wakefulness, the rest of the group was watching in some amusement as Genesis started the poem over again from the beginning, intending to stop once he finished.

" _When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end  
The Goddess descends from the sky  
Wings of light and dark spread afar  
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting._

" _Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess  
We seek it thus, and take to the sky  
Ripples form on the water's surface  
The wandering soul knows no rest._

" _There is no hate, only joy  
For you are beloved by the Goddess  
Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds._

" _Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul  
Pride is lost  
Wings stripped away, the end is nigh._

" _My friend, do you fly away now?  
To a world that abhors you and I?  
All that awaits you is a somber morrow  
No matter where the winds may blow._

" _My friend, your desire  
Is the bringer of life, the gift of the Goddess._

" _Even if the morrow is barren of promises  
Nothing shall forestall my return._

" _My friend, the fates are cruel  
There are no dreams, no honor remains  
The arrow has left the bow of the Goddess._

" _My soul, corrupted by vengeance  
Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey  
In my own salvation  
And your eternal slumber._

" _Legend shall speak  
Of sacrifice at world's end  
The wind sails over the water's surface  
Quietly, but surely._

" _Even if the morrow is barren of promises  
Nothing shall forestall my return  
To become the dew that quenches the land  
To spare the sands, the seas, the skies  
I offer thee this silent sacrifice."_ (1)

Suddenly, Ed pushed himself up and turned to look at Genesis as the man was about to close his book, and said sharply, " _Read that again._

Blinking, the red haired man said, "I know it's an incredible work of poetry, but—"

"Not even close," the blond snorted, swinging his legs around to put his feet on the floor and sitting up. "No, it's not poetry I'm thinking about right now. Just read it again, this time maybe with a little less mysticism. If you can manage that, anyway."

Everyone else was watching with curious interest now, wondering what was going through Eden's mind as he listened to Genesis read the poem again and ticked something off on his fingers along the way.

"Well?" Rude asked after the red haired SOLDIER had read through it again.

"Chaos and Omega Theory—that's what the bloody poem is about (2)," the teen announced, and almost all the others in the room sagged and nearly fell over in shock at the announcement.

"How do you figure that?" Kariya finally asked, shaking his head. The rest looked as confused as him, especially Genesis, who looked like he'd been set adrift at sea without a raft, let alone a paddle.

"Right from the very first line—'when the war of the beasts brings about the world's end.' The beasts are Chaos, possibly other Weapons, and any forces trying to destroy the world like monsters, beasts. They herald the world's end. The Goddess descending from the sky and spreading wings of light is directly referencing Omega preparing to leave the Planet. Her guiding us to bliss with a gift everlasting is the continuation of life elsewhere in a repeated, endless cycle. And that's just the first few lines! It's so obvious," Eden replied.

"But the meaning is only valid if you can continue it right through the poem, and no world would abhor a Lifestream bringing it life," Genesis jumped in.

Ed's shrewd, golden eyes met his as he challenged, "Oh really? Do you seriously believe this world is the only one with life on it? How do you think another Lifestream would react to an interloper from some other, destroyed world? I can't imagine the existing Lifestream would be too happy with the newcomer." Everyone else paled at the thought, but Ed paused and blinked before straightening and adding, "In that case...Maybe Jenova was another world's Lifestream which was 'abhorred' here, couldn't make new life because there already was life here, and went off the deep end..."

That produced choking from Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth as the last gasped out, "Are you saying we are carrying another world's Lifestream inside us?"

"Well, Jenova cells do seem to be remarkably adaptable, parasitic in nature—but wouldn't that be an initial necessity to begin establishing life on a world without life until the arrival of the Lifestream from a dead world?" Ed asked. "Maybe if things had gone differently, Jenova could have been a natural part of the Planet, rather than the destructive parasite it became. I'm sure 'Lifestream' is the wrong word for it, though, because Mako isn't genetic, but Jenova's cells are."

"...Meaning what?" Tseng asked, moving over to sit beside Eden, his gaze intense.

"Omega becomes a vessel, a compilation of all of the Lifestream energy, the 'Goddess' or sentience of the Planet, and the _genetic data_ of everything existing on the world it came from. Omega, being a physical form, stores all of that genetic data, and its consciousness becomes one and the same as the Goddess, while the energy is contained within it much the way our existing blood veins do our blood. When Omega lands on another potentially habitable world, it retains its form until life is established on that world, seeping out Lifestream and releasing bits of genetic data to begin development and growth. If all there is on another world is rock, the genetic data it begins releasing has to be powerful enough to create life, either to manipulate the rock into other objects or to start up life out of air—or, I guess what it would be releasing as genetic data would be equivalent to bacteria. Omega, in the meantime, has become the Goddess and is directing all that development, so is both the consciousness and genetic data of an entire world.

"If we assume that to be true, which there is a strong likelihood of, that would mean 'Jeh-nova' was also an Omega, and all of the genetic data of a planet is stored in its cells; cells which have been transferred to people like Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal. It means they are effectively shapeshifters, but their forms aren't those of this world, they're the forms of another one we know nothing about. The cells have to be exceptionally durable to survive, which transfers that same durability to their hosts—hence the reason the three of them are so damned strong. In their case, it's not even the Mako doing it, and it would be almost impossible to actually kill them even if they _didn't_ have the enhancements because Jenova's cells won't willingly let their host die.

"Jenova herself, if she was once a world consciousness like the Goddess Minerva, probably had a race similar to humans on her world, which is how people can take her cells into their bodies and still remain human. The monsters we have here were probably her cells back when she first landed infecting existing plants and animals, which is why they're all so strange. Now, if she had humans—or even another sentient race—on her world, don't you suppose they could have made the same damned mistakes we're making right now? If they drove her to the state of releasing Chaos and Omega, especially through the kind of wanton destruction caused by Mako Reactors and torture and murder and weapons of mass destruction—how much Lifestream would have been left for her to take with her?" At that, Ed paused and drew in a deep breath, and everyone else in the room looked stunned and horrified, even as they looked puzzled by where he was going.

Until Genesis said quietly, "Omega wouldn't have had enough Lifestream energy to be stable, and she would have left her world—and arrived on ours—badly damaged. She would not only have found no place to begin again as it was already populated, but if it's true and she found a race existing here which was similar to her own destroyers, she would have retaliated...in defense of what remained of her life. She would have been driven to insanity and become exactly the kind of 'Calamity' she was named by the Ancients. And unless we do something for Minerva, our world and its consciousness stands to go the same way and re-create the same disaster."

"Then Reeve's work to refine the Reactors for efficiency becomes especially important," Angeal said quietly, drawing in a deep breath. "As well as Eden's thought that we have to find a new power source and a way to return energy to the Planet."

"Will Shinra just let a new power source exist?" Kariya asked in a dry tone. "I think not. Though, they may actually consent to finding a way to put energy back into the Planet if it means there's going to be that much more to take from it."

"We don't have to _tell_ them we're looking for a new energy source until it's time to switch over to it. More than anything, I want the transition to be smooth for people—that they may experience thirty seconds or a minute of power loss before the power comes back on," the blond teen explained. "Done the right way, I'm sure that's possible, but if you really think Reeve is trustworthy, he would be the one to ask. Either way, whatever we do or don't start with that, the immediate requirements are making the Reactors more efficient and returning energy to the Planet."

"To do this, we truly need as many people as we can get," Tseng commented. His gaze then went to Vincent and he asked, "Would you consider rejoining the Turks? Your original identity would remain hidden, as Veld would assign you a code name to work under, and I'm sure your looks can be modified just enough for anyone you used to know to no longer recognize you."

"I wouldn't count on that where Hojo is concerned," Vincent replied. "I'm one of his experiments—he knows my eyes turned red and is—intimately knowledgeable—of my other features, long hair or not."

"What are you going to do with Weiss?" Shalua asked as she frowned deeply. "If all of you are going back to Shinra, that would leave me to take care of him by myself, and I don't like my odds."

"Am I that frightening to you?" Weiss asked curiously, looking a little amused.

"You almost killed my brother, thanks," she replied acidly.

"We'll need to hide him, and it's best to hide him in plain sight," Tseng answered. "I've already talked to Veld about claiming 'Weiss' also died in that attack, so hiding him should be a lot easier, since no one will be looking. Speaking of which, we could do the same with Shalua. Before anyone gets up in arms, let me explain." His added words made Genesis, Angeal, and Kariya calm down and wait silently for him to go on. "We have a very useful function alongside the Shinra Military Academy, the Shinra Scholastic Academy, which actually share space with designated areas for each. (3) It's essentially a school based on the fourth and fifth floors of the Shinra Building in Midgar. Employees' children and siblings attend, along with other random students, such as occasional orphans or Slum children who have shown a desire to better their living situations through hard work. While Turks can't openly have family, there's a notation said family can use to be given automatic acceptance to either or both."

Pausing, the Wutain man took a look around at the younger people in the room. "Our forces—Turks and SOLDIERs, as well as most other departments—take on rookies in their fields beginning at age fourteen with a few exceptions, most of those chosen from the Academy. Academy students often live in their own homes and commute to the Shinra building to attend classes, and are guaranteed a job somewhere in the company when they officially graduate at eighteen, assuming they weren't chosen to join a department sooner. The classes include combat, Materia use, and all fields of academia—you're free to choose a focus or take general courses, even to specify your registration with a particular Academy, which changes the Departments keeping the greatest eye on the individual's progress."

"That's assuming we want to join Shinra," Shalua glared.

Tseng's eyes went to her and he said, "It's a quick and easy way to get an excellent education, and you're free to turn down offers from anyone who asks. You're even welcome to go elsewhere after graduation, and there are independent people in most fields who vie for graduates of Shinra Academy, both forms. You also have the option of choosing both academia and various combat lessons. One of the Turks has a sister who is aiming to be a Turk as well, so she's registered with the Military Academy and takes multiple combat and investigative academic courses with a Materia course. She has other courses she takes just out of personal interest as well, which fall under the Scholastic Academy's list. _You_ could do the opposite and register with the Scholastic Academy while taking a few combat or Materia courses."

After a silence, Genesis said, "While I can understand the justification for Shalua's attendance—myself and Kariya both—what about Weiss'?"

At that question, Tseng's gaze moved first to an amused Eden, then to Sephiroth, to Weiss, and finally landed on Vincent. "Technically, we only know you through Eden, and you won't be registered in our database under your real name at any point, so it's actually a very easy thing for us to claim Weiss as your son—it wouldn't be safe to form a familial connection openly between you and Sephiroth. As a Turk's relative, Weiss would be granted approval to attend the Academy, no questions asked and no justification needed. No one who knows either of you would connect that with your real pasts. Also, for both your sakes, changing your looks would be a good thing, especially with how obvious white hair is. Black is easy to hide—even _red_ is easier to hide than white."

"Er...You're giving me a fake family? I don't even know if we'll get along," Weiss commented in confusion.

"Family doesn't always get along at the best of times," Ed answered dryly, gaze amused as he looked at the younger teen. "Hell, I had a _good_ relationship with my brother, and we _still_ sometimes got angry enough to beat the crap out of each other."

"Same here with me and Shelke!" Shalua added in mild amusement.

"Even your best friend you'll sometimes have disagreements with," Angeal added, his amused gaze finding Genesis' equally amused one.

"Also, we may well turn out to be a very good family," Sephiroth added, making Weiss look at him in some surprise. "Given the Turks' rules about 'family', you are entirely correct to say it is better not to open the connection between myself and...my father, just as he could not have an obvious link to Weiss. Due to Hojo's knowledge of both of us, showing such a connection would literally give it away to him. However, there is no reason I cannot be friendly with Weiss for no reason in particular. Especially if his goal is SOLDIER. Perhaps we may choose to share some information of a hinted family connection at some point, just to confuse Hojo, though I would be tempted to play on the connection to my human mother rather than my father."

Genesis snorted at that as several others looked amused. "That's possible. So, if we go with that, Vincent has to join the Turks, and Weiss needs a new name."

"Also, where will I live?" Weiss added.

"I can put up with you part-time, I guess," Shalua huffed. "If we're spending most of our days at school, that doesn't leave much home time outside of doing homework."

"You can also stay at the Academy to do homework," Tseng informed her. "The Academy doors open at six in the morning and close at ten at night. There's a cafeteria where you get your food and drinks for free whenever you like, and all of the facilities on both the fourth and fifth floors are open to you between six in the morning and ten at night. Technically, there's also a few floors for Academy students to stay in, but I think they're full-up right now, otherwise the Turk's sister would be living there."

"Weiss will need black hair," Vincent said suddenly, then sighed as the others looked at him. "I obviously never got to name Sephiroth, but if Weiss is supposed to be 'my son', by all rights, he'd have a name I would actually have given a child of mine. It would also deflect Hojo's attention from my appearance, as the person he experimented on isn't physically capable of reproducing anymore—for me to have a son, I couldn't be that same person. As for a name, Anthony Valentine (4)."

"Wouldn't that give the game away to Hojo?" Angeal asked in concern. "Look up the name 'Valentine' in the Shinra database," Vincent replied evenly.

Tseng tapped his chin thoughtfully with one finger, then pulled out his phone and dialed a number. When it was answered, he said, "Check the Shinra database for hits on the name 'Valentine'." A silence followed, then the man blinked in surprise and said, "Thanks. Also, tell Veld we now have Vant. He'll know what you mean." He then hung up and looked at the red eyed man to say, "We have forty-three past and present employees with that name. Your code name is Vant."

"Vant..." the man blinked, then nodded at Weiss. "What do you need to do for him to apply to the Academy, assuming Anthony is a name he doesn't mind using?"

"I don't mind it," Weiss agreed.

"That's no problem—Genesis can take both _Anthony_ and Shalua to register when we arrive back in Midgar," Tseng nodded.

"I wonder if I could make Mirage give him permanently black hair so he won't have to keep dying the roots," Ed asked thoughtfully, looking down at his glove, where his Mirage Materia was slotted. "If it works on Weiss—sorry, Anthony—it'll probably also work on Vi—Vant's eyes, only leaving us the question of which color we want them to be. Maybe we'll see what Anthony looks like with black hair, and if his looks are a fair match to Vant's, we'll make Vant's eyes a different color so Anthony can say they're his mother's eyes."

Tseng chuckled and Kariya smirked as the others stared at Eden, and Shalua asked, "But can you even change 'the arrays' enough to do that?"

"I should be able to. Just give me a minute," the blond teen said, closing his eyes and opening his connection to the Materia through the slots. He looked at the various arrays for the two, then considered how he'd change another's appearance—which resulted in the Materia imprinting a new series of arrays into itself based on the arrays he was already considering. His eyes opened wide in shock and he said, "Holy—score one for the intelligence and adaptability of Materia."

"Why, what happened?" Genesis asked with a frown.

"Have you ever found one of your Materia adding a command to it when you went looking for a new usage array?" Ed asked him in return.

At first, the red haired man frowned in puzzlement, then his eyes widened and he said, "Yes—I have a 'homing' feature on my Elemental, and the spell 'Flash' (5) between Fire and Fire 2 on my Fire. I hadn't thought of it much before. What did yours do?"

"Spell called 'Change' (6) between Multi and Invis on my Mirage. When your Fire or Elemental Mastered and reproduced, did the baby Materia have Flash or homing?"

"...Elemental isn't quite at Mastered, but—yes, I believe that new Fire Materia off mine has the same list of spells."

"Okay—we'll have to talk more about that later, but for now—Yes, it appears there is a function to change appearance. For how long, I don't know, but let me give this a try..." Ed said as he gazed at Weiss— _Anthony now_ , he reminded himself—and activated the Change spell arrays with the intent to make the boy's hair raven black like Vincent's.

"Nice," Shalua commented as the boy's flyaway, white hair turned shiny black.

Just the one color-changed feature completely changed his looks, and the girl looked very much impressed by the change. The others also looked impressed, which prompted Vincent to ask for green-hazel eyes, which only a little red shone through—and the pair _did_ look like father and son that way.

 **Notes:**

(1) Yes, I quoted the _entire_ English translation of the LOVELESS poem.

(2) I did a lot of research into that stupid poem and LOVELESS because what little bits of it I kept hearing Genesis spout didn't make sense to me for what it was 'supposed' to be. Yes, I know about the story of the three friends and one's romance and a war and all that—but as much as the _play_ and the _novel_ may be about that, THIS POEM IS NOT. I'm using Ed to vent my take on the poem, because I've never actually seen this variation before in fanfics or any other online FFVII resources.

If someone actually knows another place where this connection is made, I'd sure like to hear about it, because otherwise, there's only a few people who start to make the connection and drop the ball in the middle.

(3) I decided to play a bit with the whole Shinra Military School/Academy system, since I can't actually see Shinra having a school for military lessons and _not_ having one for things like sciences and engineering, which they also rely heavily on. As such, this is my setup for their Academy—I'm not calling it the 'Military School' because I like the term 'Academy' better and it's used interchangeably with 'School' in a few sources, anyway.

(4) Anthony is a Latin name (like Grimoire and Vincent), so it's in keeping with the family name system. It means 'praiseworthy'. Also, I liked it or I wouldn't have used it. His last name being Valentine at only 14 would make Hojo look the other way, because he knows Vincent can't have kids.

(5) Some of Genesis' skills noted on the wikia are magical homing and a spell called Flash, which they never actually defined the effect of (I'm assuming it causes blindness and potential burns). This was how I chose to resolve the blanks in where they came from, when they're literally unique to him.

(6) Change: Yes, a completely new spell I added to my created 'Mirage' Materia. How ELSE would I be able to hide Vincent and Weiss effectively?


	37. 37-Much Ado About

**A/N:** As of now, both Vincent and Weiss will be known almost exclusively as Vant and Anthony, respectively.

Much Ado About...

Later that day, Tseng had gone out, then returned with a Turk uniform for Vincent—for Vant—and the man had taken almost an hour to leave his room after disappearing into it to change. In fact, the only reason he even emerged that night was because both Sephiroth and Weiss—Anthony—joined him in the room for a bit, then dragged him out so everyone could see him in his uniform. Like Eden and Tseng, he'd put his hair in a ponytail with his bangs still long and flyaway, but his tail was at the back of his neck, and he actually looked very attractive in the black suit of the Turks. Even with his one metal glove—though he had replaced his boots with the standard brown Turk shoes. The reason for him keeping the 'glove' turned out to be because he couldn't actually removed it, as it was a fixture grafted into his arm. Sephiroth had suggested Vant paint the metal glove black so it more resembled a standard glove weapon, and the idea had merit to everyone else as well, so he agreed to do so before they left Costa del Sol.

For the purposes of Vant's and Anthony's covers, the next day Sephiroth insisted he, Vant, and Anthony go out and spend the day together doing 'family' things...Which he really had no clue about, so Vincent, who had once had parents, wound up taking over like the father he was supposed to be. The others found that rather entertaining, but Genesis nonetheless took a page out of the Valentines' book to insist on some family time with his own father and sister—and he even told Tseng to go to Hell if he tried to stop them. Ed and Rude spent some time catching up, and Tseng, who was feeling rather put out by having nothing else to do and no one to spend time with, joined them, which left a bemused Angeal to his own devices. Not that he minded—back in Midgar, he rarely had any time to himself.

When Sephiroth, Anthony, and Vant returned, Anthony looked amused while the two older men just looked a little dazed. When the others asked the younger boy what was wrong with his 'father' and 'brother', he informed them of how the two had given him vials of blood to run over to a local blood testing office, and when he'd gone back later that day for the results, it had shown that they were indeed father and son. Apparently, both had been afraid those results wouldn't be the case, and Vant had mused about how 'just once, just fooling around' had been enough for her to become pregnant. Though later in the evening, Sephiroth's shock broke and he smiled as he gave his father a hug and said something along the lines of 'fate working in mysterious ways.'

It wasn't until the day after that when Ed was finally able to talk with Genesis about the whole reason why they were supposed to be meeting in Costa del Sol in the _first_ place.

CA

Since Rude was 'watching' Kariya, Ed had time to stop by Costa del Sol's general store to sell what was left of the gems and metals he'd gotten from the first set of Jokers, and to sell the majority of the metals and gems from the second set—he only kept the adamantite for his sword. He then went to the same restaurant/bar/shop he'd gone to when he'd first arrived there, sitting at the bar to order a drink. He sort of knew he was flaunting his rank, being dressed in his uniform and all, but he still wanted to know if they had tried to keep him in town on purpose.

When the barkeeper got to him, he stopped to stare, then his jaw fell open and he leaned close to ask softly, "You're a Turk? Why didn't you say so last time?"

"Why should it have mattered?" the teen asked in reply.

"You're just a kid, and it's dangerous out there!" the man replied hotly.

"Mhm. And you forced me to call Veld to have him give another Turk a vacation to travel with me on a personal trip, all because you wouldn't let me find a traveling companion—or a few—myself," the blond shrugged. "I'm not careless or stupid. I know my own strength, and all I needed was one other person to come along in case a Joker used their death attack on me. Otherwise, I'm capable of fighting Nibel Dragons with only one other, and I win easily, so I was never in danger from anything else in the area."

After a shocked silence, the barkeep sighed and asked, "So, can we expect trouble from Shinra for the trouble we caused you?"

Raising a brow, Eden considered the question, then said, "I'm assuming not, as nothing has happened to you yet, and Veld's known for over a month. Just do yourselves a favor and don't make the same mistake again. Even if you're looking at a nine-year-old girl, don't assume you know enough about them to judge their combat strength—you don't. If this happens again, especially to the array of kids in or joining Shinra, you might not get off so lucky next time. Also—it's our mistake to make."

"Your parents must be worried sick about you!"

"I'm talking about a bunch of kids who don't have parents or whose parents or siblings are in combat roles with Shinra. In my case, I have no family, so there's no one to 'worry' about me except my coworkers in the Turks and SOLDIER. Same goes for all the other kids I'm thinking about right now. You're insulting them and yourselves by doing what you did to me." He rose and took a step back, then paused and added, "Maybe I'll see you around sometime. I hope I'll get better service next time." Ed then walked out and headed back towards the inn.

Before he'd rounded the corner of the place he'd just left, a familiar voice called, "There you are, Eden!" Turning, he saw Genesis run up to him with a smile. The other man quickly said, "Come on, let's find a more private place to talk!" Grabbing the teen's elbow, he led the way to a small restaurant with enchanting decorations and booth seating, where the man waved at the waiters and led the blond with him to a booth in the back corner.

As the two sat, Genesis breathed out a sigh of relief, then asked plaintively, " _How_ did my mother ever put up with that guy?"

Ed chuckled and said, "Probably because his charms worked on her."

"Charms?" the red haired man gasped. " _Charms_? He's a Goddess-damned lady's man who can't keep his hands to himself around a decent-looking woman!"

Covering his mouth with his hand to keep his laughter under control, the blond answered, "I wouldn't know, but I'd guess he actually cared about your mother and mostly behaves like he is now because he's lonely and doesn't know how to deal with it. Especially knowing his—lover, mother of his children, is dead, and he couldn't even go to her funeral, didn't know it had happened until Shalua told him."

The words surprised Genesis before his lips pursed and he gave his head a small shake. "Why would my mother, who obviously loved me so much, have given me up and told him I'd been killed?"

"You're asking the wrong person," the teen answered, then pointed at him. "But you have her diary, don't you? Maybe you should actually _read_ it."

Looking away for a minute, the man slowly nodded and admitted, "I should. I guess I've been avoiding it because I wanted to try to preserve the ideal the photos gave me."

"Except the ideal never existed anywhere but in your own head," Ed answered, and the other man nodded reluctantly. "Believe me, I have ideals I wish could have been true, but real life doesn't work that way. It can be a good life, and well-worth living, but 'ideal'—no. You have a life worth living, a good life you should never give up, but you've always known your family wasn't ideal. Even your friendship with Angeal isn't 'ideal', and you still have disagreements. That doesn't mean your mother loved you any less. Feelings don't just go away."

The older man's eyes moved to Ed's in surprise and he asked, "How do you know that?"

Shrugging, the boy said, "I was just about four when my father abandoned us. He had reasons, but I don't consider them good ones. But before he left, I remember some things, how he had been as a father, and he had actually been a good one. How much I loved him...I could never reconcile that with how he abandoned us, and I was always torn between love and hate after that. I couldn't stand to be anywhere near him when I met him again, just because I could never decide if I should...be the son who had loved him, or the son who had learned to hate him."

At first, Genesis opened his mouth, then closed it. "That's why you couldn't tell me."

"Exactly."

Reaching across the table, the red haired man rested his hand on Ed's shoulder and said quietly, "It's painful to carry that around with you, isn't it? Have you ever tried letting it go?"

"Have you?"

"With some things." He then pulled his hand back and chuckled as he said, "And we certainly turned this into a depressing topic from the get-go. Enough of that. Did you find any interesting Materia on your travels?"

Eden's brows rose into his hairline as his mind tried to catch up with the abrupt and extreme change in topic.

Before he could answer, a waiter appeared beside the table and deposited a dish and some drinks on it, saying, "Special, thin cornbread chips with our guacamole mixed sauce, with all the fixings—just like you like it, Genesis—and two drinks, today's special tropical blend juice and dragon fruit wine. Enjoy!" The dish was large, taking up almost half the table and appeared to be a layered sauce of something icky green on grated cheese, sour cream, olives, and some other things, with a rim of the cornbread chips sticking out of it. One drink, in a glass pitcher and with two normal glasses sitting beside it, looked like a peach-colored drink with a fair bit of fruit pulp in it, and the other was in a clear wine bottle, the color smoky white and fizzy, with two delicate wine glasses.

"Oooo, very nice, thank you!" Genesis grinned, and the waiter smiled happily before retreating.

"...Dragon fruit wine?" Ed asked in complete confusion. "Can we start with what a dragon fruit _is_?"

"Oh, it's a fruit with a very thick, magenta skin which looks a lot like scales, and it's about three or four inches across and six to eight tall, oval with a spiked, green, leafy top. The inside is a white fiber with tiny, black seeds in it, and it's a mild flavor that's both sweet and tangy, but not overpowering (1)," Genesis explained, opening the wine bottle and pouring one of the two wine glasses half-full. "Take a taste," he added, pushing it towards the teen.

Blinking, the blond picked the glass up and tasted the new wine, then blinked and grinned. "That's one of the better alcohols I've tasted. But a fruit like the one you're describing—doesn't convert easily to wine, does it?"

"No, not normally. It would be more likely to be added to a cooler," Genesis agreed. "But this restaurant has perfected it, and every chance I get, I come here to have some, even if I only get to have one drink and meal before heading back to Headquarters. Angeal comes with me sometimes, too, but this is the first time we've gotten Sephiroth to come here, so we're letting him adapt to the sun and surf, first." He then poured the other wine glass half full and sipped it, eyes closed as he hummed in pleasure.

Ed snorted, then said, "You asked about interesting Materia I found." Genesis' eyes opened again to look at him in curiosity, so he reached into his bag and pulled out the new Materia he had on him, from Neo Bahamut and Odin to Ultima and Mirage to W Summon and Added Effect. He even included Aerial Attack and the Float Materia he'd found. As Genesis scanned them by brushing his fingers over them, he listed each by name—and was faintly amused to see the red haired man's eyes grow wide in amazed awe.

"Ed...Ultima? Neo Bahamut _and_ Odin? How?" the man asked in amazement.

Making a face, Ed said, "Luck. Partly, anyway. But my so-called 'luck' is way too high for it to be only that. And in Neo Bahamut's case, I could do without it."

"What happened? Or wait, Tseng said Neo Bahamut brought you back up, so is it true that his shard is the reason you fell in the _first_ place?"

"...Yeah. I'd have liked to hand him off to the first person I found, but he won't let me unless he feels the person is a good enough one. Then, there are other Materia like Ultima, and who could I safely give _that_ to?"

"It's quite a question, isn't it? We can't really Summon Neo Bahamut here, but you can talk with them anyway, right?"

"Easily."

"Can it judge me without being Summoned, just by contact with my skin?"

Blinking, Ed looked at the red orb belonging to his bane, then said, "I don't know. I'll have to ask." The man nodded and picked up the orb, so Ed pulled his glove off and gently touched Neo Bahamut's orb with his finger. _:Can I ask you something?:_

 _:Oh, good, you have not simply left me to another. What would you like to ask?:_ the dragon immediately answered.

 _:Are you able to judge someone who can't talk with you directly—without being Summoned?:_

 _:If you mean the one currently holding my shard, yes.:_

 _:How do you judge him? Acceptable or not?:_

There was a silence, then the Summon replied, sounding rather awed, _:Unbelievable...Another Sentinel!:_

 _:Er...Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?:_ Ed asked in confusion.

 _:For him, yes. While he is not quite as powerful or skilled as you are, his skills exceed the average for a Sentinel who has not seen the Gate. In a sense, that would suit me better. Though, ask him to keep Alexander with him and to consider Sylph, Kirin_ (2) _, or Phoenix for healing, as they are able to draw themselves forth at times.:_

 _:Wait a second—Sylph and Kirin aren't existing Materia!:_

 _:They are, they have simply not been found by small-minded people bent on destruction,:_ Neo Bahamut replied in amusement.

 _:I see...:_ Ed answered, then lifted his finger and looked up at Genesis, who was watching him in mild concern. "Neo Bahamut says you can keep him—he said you're a Sentinel, as well—but wants you to keep Alexander on you and to consider Phoenix, Sylph, or Kirin for healing. And before you ask, the Summons all call me 'Sentinel', an inheritor of a skill from an ancient race, one skilled in both combat and academics. I'm really starting to think we're a branch of the Cetra, the Ancients Jenova first attacked when she landed here. (3) Also, apparently there are Summons out there which haven't been found because no one was looking for them."

The red haired man's eyes widened and he looked down at the orb he held, then slowly nodded. "I'll be keeping Alexander after all this—he saved me from Nero the Sable, after all, even if that was through me modifying his arrays to reverse the polarization of Nero's void ability—and he gave me a wing. I don't have ready access to Phoenix, though that particular Summon seems oddly prolific for some reason, and we can always start keeping an eye out for the other two you mentioned. For now, I'll replace Bahamut with Neo Bahamut. I don't suppose you want Bahamut?"

"From what I saw, he's just a dark gray version of Neo Bahamut, so not really."

"Fair enough."

"A wing?"

"A gray bird's wing. I don't really want to go into it now, though," Genesis said as he switched off the two Summon orbs and tucked Bahamut's into his pocket before looking back up at the other orbs thoughtfully, even as he scooped up some of the sauce on the platter with one of the chips and bit into it.

"Okay. What are you thinking about now, then?" Ed asked in mild surprise, seeing his expression, deciding to follow suit and test the meal. The flavor took him by surprise, as the rather unappetizing-looking green sauce actually tasted quite good, especially when combined with all the other things in it.

"Oddly enough, if it was me, I'd give Sephiroth the Ultima Materia, and Aerial Attack—what does it do, exactly?"

"When I checked the functionality of the arrays earlier, it amounts to two levels of abilities, Jump and Dive. The former hugely increases impact damage on enemies, and the latter acts a lot like Odin's instant kill, or close to it, and controls the force of fall and landing of someone who activates it. If I'm assessing it right, you could be at the top of the tallest cliff in the world, jump off it, activate that skill, and survive the fall with no harm."

With a snort, the red haired man said, "Then I'd give it to Angeal. He'll either keep it or pass it on to one of his protegees, but he won't do it carelessly."

"Really...huh. So, why would you give Sephiroth Ultima?"

"Because he uses only basic Materia right now, won't even upgrade his bracer to any of the advanced ones we have in the Shinra shop. He finally started keeping Gravity on him, otherwise he'd only have Fire, Ice, Lighting, Earth, Restore, and Revive, along with a few Alls. I actually think he'd use Ultima in dire situations, and his inherent natural strength won't suffer much from having it—for him, barely a dent."

"I'll pass it on later, then. Who would use W Summon?"

"Someone who relies on Summons—there are a few in SOLDIER who go that way, but right now, none I'd trust with double Summoning. You don't have to get rid of them all right now, you know."

"...No, I guess not. Moving on, then—"

"Hold on a second," Genesis cut him off, digging in his other pocket. "I remembered you said you'd found Summons for Ice, Lightning, and Earth, but haven't found Fire yet." He dropped a red orb on the table beside the food tray. "My Ifrit recently Mastered and I started using the baby one, but took it off shortly before our first phone conversation to use Alexander. You can have the baby Ifrit."

Eden had to snort at that, but reached over to tap the new Summon orb with his still bare hand. The first thing he heard was a bemused voice which sounded oddly female, considering the books described male ones, saying, _:From one Sentinel to another. How unusual. Have you use for me, Sentinel?:_

 _:...Don't the books describe male Ifrits, not female ones?:_

 _:I do not know. I merely know there are both male and female of all Summoned beings, and I happen to be female.:_

 _:What if a Summoned being has only one, not three?:_

 _:It alternates. When the one deteriorates and returns to the Lifestream, the new one to replace it will be the opposite gender.:_

 _:...You're a very new Summon, yes? How do you know all that?:_

 _:My parent told me before we parted ways.:_

 _:Well, since Genesis gave you to me and I don't have a fire-based Summon yet, I sure don't mind having you with me,:_ he told her with a small smile.

When her acceptance returned to him, he lifted his finger and looked at a smirking Genesis to ask, "You knew she was female and that the books don't acknowledge their genders properly, didn't you?"

"I did," the red haired man replied happily. "And apparently, a female Summon spawns a female baby while a male Summon spawns a male baby."

"...So, you wanted to talk about alchemy and the arrays, right?" Ed asked after taking a minute to drain his wine, pour some juice, and get in several good bites of the meal. "I think you know some based on the manipulating you've done, right?"

"Yes, mainly through determining what components worked in all circles and—moving them around. As a result, I started moving around some of the other components and began seeing patterns. By far, the biggest adaptation I've made was in the battle against Nero, and Alexander helped me do it."

"Have you ever tried using the arrays you've drawn from the array you drew instead of the Materia?"

"...No. That's possible?"

Ed took a napkin and the charcoal he kept on him in the absence of chalk, and drew the main array for the Earth Materia. He looked up at the older man to see if he recognized it, and got a nod and curious look in reply. The blond said, "This array like this is actually dangerous, but very powerful. Materia sub-arrays would usually control the safety of this array, but if you didn't have the sub-arrays, like now, what would you add to it to make it safe?" With that, Ed handed him the charcoal.

Blinking in surprise, Genesis eyed the array, then began adding parts to it which he remembered as key components in the sub-arrays. By the time he was done, there was almost no space left and it was hard to read the array, but Ed looked both amused and pleased. The younger of the two took another napkin, drew the same array, and added to it the safety commands he was used to, then placed the much neater circle beside the one Genesis had modified.

"These are basic principles in alchemy. You aren't wrong, but you'd need a much larger circle to place them properly, so when using a compact circle, you use short-hand and take some more obsolete safeties out. No, that doesn't actually affect the safety of the array—I said they were obsolete, which means they're actually not needed. Excluding combined effects, for example, aren't things you have to worry about when you have the circle drawn out like this. Those would be precautions to take when testing a new array where you have no idea what the effects will actually _be_. Others, like those three control guards there, can be covered with this one control guard—that's tested and proven."

For a few minutes, Genesis compared the two, then slowly nodded and said, "I see. Yet, at the same time, I have to wonder how you could have come up with it, tested and proven it, in the first place."

"It was—a learned skill from a being we weren't supposed to have had contact with. That was thousands of years ago," Eden began as he pulled a stone he'd picked up off the street from his pocket and dropped it on the circle. "Once we had the first keys, we studied them, compared them with science and math, tested and verified every piece using mathematical codes. Honestly, you could resolve some of these by looking in physics and math books, or chemistry books, or biology books, depending on the effect you're going for. Now, using mine, put your fingers on the circle and try cycling your energy through it the same way you do when you use Materia, and see what happens."

Genesis did as told—and choked in shock as green-tinged white light flared.

 **Notes:**

(1) For anyone who doesn't know, this is a real fruit and very tasty, though in pictures online, some are yellow. This is, as far as I can tell, the actual most common color for them.

(2) Sylph and Kirin don't exist in the FFVII world, so these are ones I'm adding, given how they're in most of the other FF games.

(3) This implies more than one thing.

The first is that people from Ed's world and Gaia have actually had contact with one another before while the Cetra were the only humans on the Planet (he couldn't have Cetra genes to be a Sentinel otherwise). For Ed's purposes, he doesn't realize that aspect of his wording, nor does Genesis because Genesis doesn't know Ed's from another world.

What Ed (and I) is really getting at by saying this is that, regardless of the humans who arrived on Gaia later (this is a tie-in to FFX/FFX-2), some Cetra still remained and simply blended in to the population of new arrivals. Their genes are in recessive states so their powers don't openly show the way Aeris' do, but those genes exist nonetheless, and there's always the chance they could re-activate in an individual down the line. Shinra's thinking in that regard is waaaay too narrow, because it's not accounting for the actual way genes function—as long as their data is present, it can still activate, and Aeris was never 'the only Cetra left', just the only one currently in possession of the full Cetra powers. This is also part of why I'm pretty sure they don't really know anything about science or scientific method.

 **In this story, take Genesis as a Sentinel-version Cetra** , hence his connection to Minerva/the Lifestream and his ability with the alchemic arrays.


	38. 38-Deepground Diagram

Deepground Diagram

About an hour later, Genesis was shaking his head as they left the restaurant. "So that's how alchemy works..." he muttered, still sounding amazed and shocked.

"I can give you some of the basics to study if you like?" Eden offered, looking amused at his friend's reaction.

"No. Like I said, I don't dare bring any of this to Shinra's open attention," the older man answered, shuddering. "But away from Shinra, I'll happily work on this further, and some of it I can do myself now that I know a great deal more about what's going on with the arrays in the first place."

"Just remember that it doesn't work around Reactors."

"All the more reason not to bother with it in Midgar."

"Except that you can modify existing arrays within the Materia, Reactors or not."

"Yes. And those seem to like to direct me to the changes I'm looking for. The only difference now is that I understand much more about why those changes work."

"I suppose there's truth to that based on what Mirage did yesterday."

"Later on, I'll let you have a look at Alexander's arrays and let you compare them to my Limit Break and to the arrays I used to stop Nero's void energy. If that works the way I think it does, we might be able to go to the pool of stagnant Mako and convert it forcibly back to its basic form, which would give the world more time before Chaos or Omega would trigger."

"That's fine, and I'd like to do that comparison, but I'm worried about disturbing the pool at this point—it might prevent Omega from activating should that path become—the only one left."

"...Which would either completely destroy Minerva or leave her in no better shape than Jenova was in."

"Right. Now, if we can truly save this world, we'll be able to find a way to largely clear the pool—not completely, though—so it'll be able to start over."

"Hmm, I guess it's like you said before, that nothing 'ideal' exists because it can't, no matter how good things are. I suppose the Planet would need that outlet or the Lifestream would be poisoned by any negativity people produced just by living...and dying."

After that statement from Genesis, the two fell silent until they got back to the inn, where they found Kariya, Rude, Vant, and Tseng gathered around Anthony as he drew an image on a paper. The boy was sitting on the floor at the main room's coffee table, occasionally frowning slightly as he added things to the image. As Eden and Genesis came in, the rest of their 'party'—Angeal, Sephiroth, and Shalua—joined them from a room in the back (which caused a few raised brows at the oddity of that group), so everyone gathered around the table as Anthony switched to a separate sheet of paper.

When the younger boy with now-black hair began drawing again, his lines were clearer and smoother, and he started at the top of the page. (1) "This is where you enter Deepground—that is, where you leave the lift building. This door is a heavy door you'll only get open with the codes or by blowing it up with something that would bring the whole Shinra building and the pillar down. I don't know what's on the lift side of the door because I was blindfolded for that part of the trip, but I'd bet there are traps and security codes you'd need to pass through that section safely. Right outside there is one of the main roads in the town, so it usually has a lot of traffic and it gets used pretty often for training missions—there will be traps there and a lot of people ready and willing to attack you. Though, the members' clothes have Mako-blue lines on them, and sometimes, the trainers make those lines turn red to assign teams, so you may see some people with red lines instead of blue."

"I'm guessing there will be no way to sneak in from there, codes or otherwise, due to the traffic on that street?" Tseng asked curiously. "Unless night would be less busy?"

"We don't have 'day' and 'night' the way you define them because we don't have actual sky, and half of Deepground's population is awake at all times," Anthony explained. "As soon as those doors open when they weren't scheduled to, alarm or not, everyone will start converging there. We're supposed to have an alarm system if the doors open and it turns out to be a dangerous threat, but we've never heard it before—we're just told that if we hear the alarm ring five times, get to the entrance immediately."

"What kind of population do you have down there?" Sephiroth asked thoughtfully.

"Well, by the 'half' I'm used to dealing with, probably over a thousand, but most aren't very powerful and a lot of them are still considered 'experimental'," Anthony answered. Almost everyone's eyes widened at that. He paused, then tapped the area to the right of the main road. "This first area is sort of the 'commons' for Deepground. We have our homes and rooms in this section—" He paused to tap an area further in on the same side of the road and to the right of a large, circular space in the middle, then returned his finger to the one he'd first tapped.

"—But this is where we all have to go to eat, get regular check-ups, do VR training, that sort of thing. In other words, it's where most of the members will be, and where most of them will come from. There's some 'tiering' to the town, and in this area, almost everything is above you, so the main road and entrance to the commons is a very dangerous place to be. If you're really serious about going in there, make sure to get to higher ground as fast as you can, rooftops especially."

On his basic town diagram, he moved to the left of the main road, and said, "This is the rest area for the doctors and scientists, but it's nothing in particular as there's no labs or weapons or anything here. We're not really supposed to go there, but we frequently do anyway, usually because the doctors don't always want to go to their offices or the labs for testing or things like that. They're weak and can't fight their way out, nor do any of them have the codes to get out. It has a wall around it which isn't half as effective as the one around the labs."

He continued down the left side, to about the same region as the members' rooms were, and told them, "This is the experimental area, but I don't know what's in there—only the experimental subjects know anything about it. I was a finished 'experiment' at birth, so I wasn't raised there—the only one of the people you've met so far who could have told you anything is Azul. It has a strong wall around it, and I'm not sure how else besides the gate you'd get in by, but I can guess at some of it, like that the Mako diversion pipe leads into there and there's probably a smithy. Otherwise, only Argento knows about it, mainly because she's the one who first trains newcomers, and she makes our specialized weapons there. She's not really one for battle, though."

Anthony tapped a building wider and taller than the others which was right at the back of the diagram, filling most of the space between the members' residences and the labs, saying, "Central Command is this building, and I've only seen inside it once—it's where all their technology except our combat gear is kept. They raid the Shinra files from there, and someone's always there to take calls from the President. All technology and computer-based activities go on there, and I can't tell you anything more than that about what's there. Things like the color of the lines on the members' uniforms are controlled from there, too, and I know we have technicians working out of there who sometimes work on things in town or for the doctors. It's probably the one place which doesn't have a full host at 'night' unless there's a training mission going on."

"What's in the middle?" Shalua asked suddenly.

"Reactor Zero. It causes a sort of green-red glow down there, and it has a power supply pipe leading straight up to the Shinra building. The main Reactor is where the 'throne' and the common meeting room are, but Deepground members are only allowed in that chamber when we're holding a meeting," Anthony explained. "Usually, because I'm the strongest Tsviet, I'd sit there during a meeting, but we don't have many meetings, only one since I actually got to be the leader. The only thing I know of in there is that there are a lot of vents high on the wall, so someone very agile and enterprising could probably get in or out from them, since they're wide enough for a person to fit through." His gaze went to Angeal and he added, "Well, an average person, anyway. Someone as bulked-up as Angeal probably wouldn't fit."

"Vents—those would be ideal routes for the Turks to use to get around unnoticed, unless there's an actual sewer or maintenance shafts to help us travel unnoticed," Eden commented.

"It's true most of the Turks would fit," Kariya agreed. "And Genesis. But outside them, I don't think many SOLDIERs would fit, since most are built a lot like Sephiroth and Angeal. I think there were a few Turks who wouldn't fit either, like probably Rude, but that or similar types of things would be our best bet to penetrate deeply, especially if it means some of us could bypass the traps—I don't think we'll have a Hell of a lot of time to waste on that crap when we go in there."

"That would serve as a perfect decoy as well—I daresay the traps trigger alarms. If we had people working to get in through the main entrance—largely from SOLDIER, who are direct-combat-oriented anyway—most of Deepground's forces would rush to the main entrance to defend it. That would leave the Turks to infiltrate and begin seeking out our targets," Tseng added, getting nods from the others. "Go on. What else can you tell us about?"

"Well, probably the first thing is that the one difference between SOLDIER and Deepground is how SOLDIERs focus on sword-fighting, but most of Deepground actually uses guns or magic. The Tsviets are actually closer to anomalies than they are the usual for mainly having close-combat weapons," the boy offered thoughtfully. "If you want to survive fighting them, you'll have to close the distance fast and force them into close combat, otherwise you'll all just be gunned down. And, in the area where we spend most of our time, we also have gear storage—weapons, armor, those Mako suits, things like that. I think some of the storage rooms in the central storage building have other kinds of things in them, but I don't know of anything in particular in them. Weapons are the most dangerous part of what's there, though, since there's enough different kinds and things like replacement bullets to last about twenty-four hours in battle, and there's quite a lot of explosives and missiles there.

"In the housing area, even the Restrictors have rooms—there's a building they share which we can't get into. Though, you'll probably have already met them in battle if you attack Deepground, so probably won't find them there, even if you find a way in." For a moment, he paused again, then said, "There are sewers for sure, but I don't know what kind—as in, whether you could travel through them. If there are other maintenance hatches, they'll have wiring in them for our basic systems, so probably also run through most of Deepground—I just don't know where you'd find them or where they would take you to."

"So to find Shelke, we have to get to the labs..." Genesis commented sadly, and Tseng's eyes went to him.

"All the more reason to use any vents, pipes, sewers, and maintenance hatches we can find to infiltrate. And Genesis, the fact that you're so closely connected to this situation makes me wary of having you in the infiltration party. We'll rescue who we can, but your lack of objectivity could jeopardize our chances of success, especially where those rescues are concerned."

"But—" the red haired man began, obviously upset.

"Of course, by the time we find them— _you_ may be one of the ones we have to rescue," Eden commented, making Genesis spin to face him in surprised confusion for a moment before his jaw dropped.

"What does _that_ mean?" Angeal asked warily.

"It means Deepground will come after me again, and the rest of you might need to let them take me just to track their entrance," Genesis answered, sounding a little winded.

"That is simple for you to say when you have never had to take such a risk before, yourselves," Sephiroth put in, his tone very dangerous.

"Are you for real?" Kariya snorted. "Damn brat—don't show your age so much, especially not to Turks younger than you."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" the silver-haired man replied in a sharp tone.

"It means being bait periodically is in a Turk's job description," Vant said quietly, and everyone's eyes went to him. "It always has been, and it always will be. To top that off, more than half the missions we're given are considered suicide missions and we're not expected to survive. In this case— _Genesis_ is the one they want, so he would have to act as the bait. Not something we do easily or carelessly."

"On the other hand—a Turk who _could_ be the bait won't hesitate to do it," Tseng finished, and the three SOLDIERs looked at him. "Even if we could use a Turk, someone like Eden, he would be an afterthought, because their interest in you is due to your defeat of Nero, Genesis. Nothing Eden could do, especially in a place where they would see or live to tell about it, would divert their attention to him after your own battle. After all, they haven't shown the slightest interest in Angeal or Sephiroth after their defeats of their opponents."

"That might be because they're already registered as complete experimental prototypes assigned to Hollander and Hojo," Ed said with a disturbed frown.

"But then I should be safe, too!" Genesis blinked.

"Er, no," the blond teen answered, shaking his head. "I mean—Angeal was Project G's success, and Sephiroth was Project S's success. You were—registered as a failed experiment." Everyone stared at the two young men as Genesis leaned back in his seat, eyes squeezed shut in defeat and face clearly showing pain. "Genesis, stop and think for a minute," Ed told him quietly, reaching over to grip his arm. "You may have been listed as a 'failed' experiment, but you've proven both strong and capable—so strong and capable you actually defeated a supposedly unbeatable success of their experiments. To a scientist, especially one with a mentality like Hollander or Hojo, it should have been impossible for you to do that, yet you did, and they want to know how you could have done it."

There was no reaction from the red haired man, but Sephiroth suddenly sighed and said, "Actually, I see where you are coming from. They were pitting their best experiments against the predecessors of said experiments to see how they matched up, and would not have been surprised by Angeal or myself defeating our opponents, given our status scientifically as 'successful prototypes'. Of course, who we actually fought could have changed the results—perhaps Angeal would not have been able to defeat Rosso, for example. But scientists are often mentally limited to a result they want, not to what the subject is truly capable of, because a sentient being's capabilities are actually variables they cannot track or predict. We will always do things to surprise them, no matter how much they hate it—that is why Shinra is such a control-freak."

"Do you mean the President or the company?" Shalua asked in amusement.

"Both," the man shrugged, then opened his mouth to say more—only for Angeal to cut him off.

"In that context, what Genesis did by defeating Nero—or probably any of the Tsviets or Restrictors—was to slap them in the face with the fact that their so-called failure is, in fact, a blazing success. Because honestly, I don't think they ever had any doubts Nero would win against whichever of us he fought, and if he'd fought me or Sephiroth, he _would_ have won—I have no doubt of _that_ , either." Angeal paused to look at Genesis, whose eyes had opened to meet his gaze searchingly. "And I _know_ you could have beaten Azul, because in the end, while the other beasts in Modeoheim were nearly immune to magic, _he_ was weak against it."

"And for what it is worth, your chances against Rosso would have been about the same as mine, only you may have gotten the upper hand sooner—while both Angeal and I are intelligent and able to adapt in battle, you are singularly the most rapidly adaptable of us," Sephiroth added, making those searching, Mako blue-green eyes go to him. "You proved that against Nero, and in many battles before then. When the three of us practiced, we were holding you back through familiarity."

"But it's also a fact my physical strength doesn't compare to either of you," the red haired man pointed out softly.

Angeal shook his head and said, "That's moot if you can still find ways to beat us. But you never really, truly _try_ to beat us, either, just like we don't go seriously against you, and the result is—stagnation. We're our own worst enemies where battle practice is concerned. I didn't beat Azul with physical strength, Genesis—I beat him with your combat advice against a stronger opponent and the Gravity Materia you convinced me to use in my Buster Sword."

The red haired man's eyes widened in surprise and realization as he finally understood what they meant. "Hollander registered me incorrectly without looking further at what I was capable of doing, and that hasty registration is now coming back to bite all of us, because that very thing gave Deepground the right to claim me."

"Except we're not letting them have that right," Tseng informed him, picking up the sheet Anthony had drawn the Deepground diagram on. "If we let them take you, it'll be as a last resort and set up as a full-scale sting operation, joint with SOLDIER and the Turks, something which we may just have to resort to. You'll be aware of the arrangements and have a tracking device on you so we can get to the entrance quickly, fully prepared for what will be coming. In that case, you'll be lucky to be there for a few hours, and you might even be able to make contact with Shelke in that time. In that case, with the two of you being fellow hostages, we won't blame you for being in her company or trying to make it easier to get the two of you out."

Slowly, Genesis nodded and said, "I suppose that makes sense. If it means stopping Deepground and rescuing Shelke, it'll be worth it."

"So, is that all for this discussion?" Kariya asked after a silence.

"I believe so," Tseng agreed, rising.

Others also began rising, Kariya, Shalua, Angeal, and Sephiroth gathering around Genesis to make sure he was all right after hearing how Hollander had classified him. The red haired man actually waved Eden away, so he followed Tseng as the man went outside. Soon after they got outside, the Wutain man stopped and turned to look at Ed, so the blond teen joined him and they walked quietly to a bar near the beach, where they sat in the back and ordered drinks.

"This is one of the biggest operations we've ever worked on," Tseng sighed softly after their drinks arrived. He was sipping a nice, red wine.

Eden took a drink from a strawberry cooler and said, "In a way, it's a good thing, though. Once this one is done, there shouldn't be anything else quite this major for awhile, other than maybe AVALANCHE."

"...Why do you think AVALANCHE may compare?"

"I had the dubious pleasure of meeting Fuhito, who is a scientist and a member. He has a mindset which basically says he doesn't care who he kills. Neo Bahamut refused to let him near his Materia shard, he was so...mentally disturbed."

"That would indeed be cause for concern. Is there a reason you followed me, or do you just like my company?" Tseng asked with a faintly amused smile.

The blond gave him a quirky grin and said, "Well, that too, but no. I wanted to tell you about something I'm working on which I think some people could make good use of, but I don't want it to be widely-known, used, or produced. Here's the basic idea." With that, he explained his ideas about the fused Materia (2) and who he would give access to, which included Tseng and possibly people the Turk sent his way.

After a minute of considering the idea, the man gave a nod and said, "I can see how it would be useful, but also how you would want to restrict access. What do you suppose would happen with the boosts and deficiencies slotted Materia produce?"

With a blink, Ed realized that was actually a new question, so took a minute to think about it before saying, "There's two ways I could see it working. Either it would compound them—say, if you'd get a one percent boost to 'intellect' and a one percent decrease in 'strength' off each one and four were combined, the total might be four percent to intellect and four percent off strength. There's also the possibility that they'd equalize. If they were all one percent—same as in the first example—the result might still only be one percent to and from, but if three of them were one percent and one was three percent, it might come out to a two percent both ways. We can only know by testing it, honestly."

Tseng considered that and said, "I supposed there's also the chance it might normalize itself to the highest or the lowest, or even to the predominant one. Using the example of four shards, three at one percent and one at three percent, it might be reasonable to say it could choose one or three percent as both exist in its make-up, or that it may take one percent because three quarters of it operates on that basis."

"On the other hand, most scientific equations only work if you're working on the base requirements of the one with the most demands. In which case, even if only one quarter of it works on the basis of three, it would normalize to the three because the Materia won't work at all if its minimum requirements aren't met," the blond replied thoughtfully, pulling over a napkin and taking out charcoal to begin making notes. "That one has a valid basis, too, so I'd count it amongst the most likely options. The ones you suggested also have potential, and this would really need to be tested to validate what basis it might operate on. Then again, depending on what we combine, it might change the basis it's judging it by to determine its functional needs, which include the boosts and deficiencies."

"Would it be possible for you to remove both—to make them operate for others how they apparently do for you to have so many on you?" Tseng asked suddenly.

Shaking his head, Eden answered, "None of the functionality arrays control that aspect, Tseng, so I don't think it's the Materia doing it, I think it's the slots. Maybe it's a necessary function in the slots to make them connect to the wearer more effectively, but I've been thinking about that since I found some Independent Materia, which cause no deficiencies no matter how many you have on. But then—those are very, very rare for the average person to find, and can only enhance you to your own body's maximum limits—they can't make you super-human. For what it's worth, Shinra might have put the boosts and deficiencies on the gear on purpose to keep people from being able to be truly effective against them."

"Does that mean it might be possible to design slotted gear without causing Materia deficiencies?" the Wutain man blinked.

"Maybe. It would have to be tested, but I won't discount the possibility."

"Under the same terms as fusion Materia, as we wouldn't want that in either Shinra's or AVALANCHE's hands."

"Of course."

"I've also been thinking about the need to return energy to the Planet, and I know of someone in Midgar who might be able to shed some light on the situation. I'd like you to meet her—she's the last remaining Cetra." (3)

"Really?" Ed blinked, looking up in amazement. "Count me in!" Tseng nodded.

 **Notes:**

(1) I don't actually have a clear view of what Deepground looks like in its entirety when it's undamaged, and the damaged one in Dirge of Cerberus was obviously not quite true to form, as broken-down as it was. I also never had the opportunity to play the online part as one of the Deepground members. As such, for rooms I could find images of, I'll try to be at least somewhat accurate in descriptions when they actually go in there, but a lot of it is just how I imagine it being laid out or looking.

(2) Fusion Materia exist in Crisis Core (I'm sure many people reading this know that), but I'm taking that as an extremely primitive form of what Ed's trying to do, and it's functioning differently as a result. Crisis Core's fusions are limited to two, and they have to be very different from each other—this is like the Fire Blade or the Demi Blade in one Materia kind of fusion. Ed's type will be able to do that, too—much more efficiently though—but his will also open up what is essentially a branch of science and alchemy in itself with detailed rules and a whole host of forms way beyond what any of the FFVII games allowed.

(3) Tseng is a lot of things, but he's not a fool, and doesn't really 'understand' what to do to 'save the world'. As such, I believe he WOULD want to introduce Ed to Aeris so they can talk about things he doesn't really have a clue about and hopefully come to some sort of resolution for one or all of the problems. What he knows for sure is that Eden won't willingly do something to cause another person (especially an innocent girl) suffering or hand them to someone who will torture them—not after he told them about Chaos and Omega Theory.


	39. 39-Midgar

**A/N:** Midgar isn't finished being built yet! As such, there are holes in the perimeter wall and some parts of some of the Plates aren't finished yet. This chapter and the next two are basically cliffhangers due to the situation—the chapters would have been too long otherwise.

Midgar

The next week passed quietly with the group splitting up in different ways day-by-day. One of the more entertaining days was when Genesis, Sephiroth, and Angeal took the day with one another and managed to get caught up in a robbery in progress. Vant also found time to paint his metal arm black with a strong metal paint, which completely changed its look.

When Ed offered the Ultima Materia to Sephiroth at the end of the week, the silver haired man almost died from the shock of being handed a Materia so powerful. While he felt he couldn't nearly give back what he'd gotten, he offered Ed the strange, purple metal from the Mythril Mine—and found himself shocked again when the teen jumped up and down like a kid on their birthday. Ed then dragged both Kariya (because Veld's orders to him had been to keep an eye on the man) and Rude off for about five days while they headed south—and when they got back, everyone gaped at the new sword he was wearing and the satisfied smirk on his face. As for his view of the ore Sephiroth had given him in exchange for Ultima—the debt was paid.

As he would now never be replacing that sword, he freely showed the Ama no Murakumo (1) to his inn-mates and explained how he'd gotten it commissioned—the purple illusion stones, the Mako-infused wood, the adamantite and the variant of cobalt ore Sephiroth had given him, along with the leather from the gloves Rayne had given him. It had four pairs of linked slots and was a slightly long sword on him, but mainly slender, in a folded-metal style with a slightly curved blade which widened a bit near the tip before tapering back down to a point. Most of the blade was hued purple with gold-colored streaks bending and twisting through it, and the wooden handle was long enough for the blade to be used one-handed or two, wrapped in rich, warm, brown leather. On the pommel sat one illusion stone, and in the cross of the gold-colored guard and blade sat the other, visible from both sides of the blade. While it was 'gold-colored', the metal wasn't gold at all, but a form of copper which had a golden hue.

With the new blade, he'd rearranged his Materia again, still having Poison and Added Effect paired in his sword, but moving Shiva, Ramuh, Titan, and Ifrit to the blade as well. His last two paired Materia were Mirage and the new All he'd found in the Mt. Nibel Mako spring. On his knife, now hidden in his boot, he had Gravity and Elemental paired, along with Enemy Skill and Float—it was meant to be a trump card. As a result, his glove now had Fire, Lightning, Ice, and Earth, while one bracer, which he'd moved to his right ankle, had both Revive and Final Attack paired and the Restore and All Materia separately until he could get a better bracer. On the openly visible bracer, he had Heal, Manipulate, Guard Plus, and Health Plus. Of course, he still had the bracer with the fragments of Zirconaide on his upper arm, hidden under his clothes, and a few other Materia shards, like Odin and Aerial Attack, were in his pocket so he could switch them off if he wanted to.

Otherwise, as long as Eden kept Mirage just slightly active, Anthony had permanently black hair and Vant had permanently green-hazel eyes, though the fourteen-year-old had gone through more changes than that. He had changed his hairstyle so his bangs flipped to the sides of his face and most of the former spikes laid flat on his head, leaving just a series of spikes oddly like a head crest running from one ear to the other just behind his bangs. Outside that change, Anthony had also begun dressing more like a normal person; while he kept his white pants, he switched off to a pair of black shoes and a black t-shirt with a design of a lion in silver with a red mane and tail tuft. It had been a gift from Sephiroth, who was now his 'older brother' and also wore a lion icon, making it obviously important to him, though he showed how emotionally stunted he still was by not knowing _why_ it was so important.

They also had finally gotten word of when Kariya would be off house arrest—which turned out to be the end of the day Eden, Rude, and he returned from the blacksmith's cabin. Not that Kariya had really been on house arrest since the day he'd saved Genesis from the second Restrictor, but Veld didn't care about that detail. It had taken some work and another look at year-old files for Veld to realize he could have the Legendary Turk back on assignment so soon due to two reasons. The first was the man's 'good behavior' for the previous ten months, which allowed a maximum of one year to be cut off the minimum two-year sentence (and Kariya had actually been on good behavior that whole time). The extra two months off house arrest came from Veld exchanging a large chunk of the vacation time Kariya had earned in the two years before being put on house arrest. Losing the vacation time didn't matter that much to Kariya because he'd been resting for ten months already.

The next day, they were going to start the trek back to Midgar in order to get back the day before the SOLDIERs were due back at work. That morning, the Turks and SOLDIERs all dressed in their respective uniforms and got on the noon ship heading back over to Junon, where they stayed overnight. From Junon, they took the roughly two day walk to Fort Condor, arriving around mid-afternoon on the second day. Eden decided to check the leak on a whim—and most of the others first winced at the sign of the leak, then gaped in shock at the Materia Ed began collecting. Two of the shards were red orbs—and picking up the second made him start laughing.

"What's so funny?" Shalua asked with a pout.

"Oh, nothing, I just found both Phoenix and Sylph," Eden answered, then looked at Genesis. "Can I guess your preference would be the bird of fire?"

The other man blinked, then asked, "What does Sylph _do_ , considering we have no active record of it?"

Ed tossed it to him and the red haired man caught it, then shook his head. "It's very nice, but would be a lot more useful for a solo fighter or a healer with how it splits up the healing—the more people it has to heal, the less effective it is. I can appreciate its ability, but it isn't half as practical on a battlefield as a mass damage, heal (2), and revive. I'd take Phoenix for that alone—but yes, I just love showy, fiery things!" the man grinned as he threw Sylph back to Eden, then caught the Phoenix shard as the blond sent it his way.

"Good enough," the teen agreed. He tucked Sylph away, then looked at Shalua and Anthony thoughtfully for a minute. "Why don't you two kids—I'm using the term loosely here—come and pick some Materia you think you'll use, and take the rest into town to sell to the Materia shopkeeper? That'll give you some free, fully-functional starter Materia and some spending money." He offered the green orbs in his hands to them.

The two traded looks, then looked at their respective 'fathers', who both gave nods of agreement to the plan, so they quickly began gathering the shards, also taking the ones from Eden. Both kept one of each, though there was again only one Seal and Shalua wanted it, so Anthony let her take it—like Ed, he wasn't likely to use it in a fight. After that, the blond led the two of them to the Materia shop, where the keepers stared at him in shock when they saw his Turk uniform. It didn't take long for the sales to be made, and both Shalua and Anthony seemed pleased by having their own spending money, so the group continued north.

Next on their path was the Mythril Mine, and while there were now some workers there, a few minor monsters occasionally came up from the depths. They were pretty weak, but one similar to the dragonfly-seahorse Eden had seen around Corel managed to hit him with a Flamethrower, which earned him another Enemy Skill. When they reached the Mine exit, they found it was evening, so set up camp to rest for the night before crossing the marsh.

The next morning, they headed out across the marsh, and Genesis informed Eden of the Beta skill from the big snake heading their way—which, of course, meant Ed had to get it. Beta knocked him for a loop (it was the fire version of Aqualung), but he could heal himself with Cure 2 now, and the battle didn't take long after that, making him wonder if it was supposed to be so easy to kill a snake that big. They again continued north and slightly east, reaching the plains past the marsh a bit before sunset, but kept moving until sunset. At that point, they set up camp to rest overnight, and over the next two days crossed the plains between mountains as they generally headed northeast.

Finally, they reached Kalm around noon, where the ones who had never been there before took a look around (Ed found the Materia Shop and bought a Steal Materia which he personally had little use for, but wanted for research purposes) and they all got a meal, then headed west towards Midgar through the wastes.

In the wastes, they encountered a Custom Sweeper and Eden asked, "How does a machine qualify as a 'monster'?" He then paused and asked in a frustrated tone, "And who the Hell names these things such stupid names?"

After a round of laughter, Vant said, "Let it use Matra Magic before you kill it—that's another useful Enemy Skill."

"Yeah, I remember, thanks," the blond grinned, then moved forward to fight the machine...which took about two well-placed strikes on his part and only one round of Matra Magic on the 'monster's'.

"A machine needing a pilot probably wouldn't qualify as a 'monster'," Tseng told him as the others moved forward towards a spot in the distance. "But this machine, which was built to be operated by a pilot, gained the ability to move about on its own power and will. Hence the designation 'monster'."

"Huh. Okay, I sort of get that," Eden agreed, and they kept walking.

Around dark, they stopped and set up camp, still just a little too far from Midgar to see more than a dark spot on the horizon. As they set out the next morning, the eighth day after leaving Costa del Sol, the spot quickly began to resolve into the city known as Midgar. By the time they were close enough to get a good look at the city, Eden had to raise a brow as he looked at the city raised fifty meters above ground on support pillars. He'd read books describing Midgar, even looked at a few pictures showing Midgar from a distance, but they truly didn't do it justice, and that pie plate (3) above the ground was unsettling. It also over-shadowed a large area of land around it, which meant the Slums below the upper plate, and the central pillar lined up exactly with Shinra Headquarters. Around the outside of the circular Upper Plate, there were more jagged areas of cement which acted as Infantry vehicle storage, arrival, and departure platforms, one of them being for civilian aircraft as well.

"It's in there," he said suddenly, making the others face him in confusion.

"What's where?" Anthony asked curiously.

"Deepground is either in or below that central pillar—I guess we'd have to see how deep it actually goes to know, but I'm pretty sure blowing out part of that thing would open up Deepground." Eden then gave a slightly frowning Tseng a grin and said, "Not that I'm suggesting we do that—we'd run the risk of dropping the whole plate and killing everyone above and below. It's just an observation."

Tseng faced the city with a critical look, then blinked and said, "Well, that gives new meaning to the phrase 'hidden in plain sight'."

Chuckles answered his comment, and they again headed for the city, which had a wall of steel girders around it, showing the construction in progress. The guards around the perimeter stared at them and let them pass, knowing the Turks' uniforms on sight and Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal similarly. Everyone in the Slums gave them a wide berth, not wanting trouble from a large group of Shinra's elites, and they quickly reached the Sector 7 Slums train station, the only station in the Slums, though Ed could have done without the smell of pollution or the trash heaps. It didn't take long for the train to arrive, so they all got on and took seats in one car, Shalua and Anthony on the side facing outward, and Eden watching the windows intently as he sat calmly with Tseng on one side of him and Genesis on the other. Anthony found the view fascinating, but Shalua coped an attitude about his interest in the scenery, which actively made him angry—for the first time since they'd known him.

As Anthony raised a hand to strike the girl beside him, Vant seized him by the collar of his shirt, dragged him back, and tossed him onto the seat where the man had previously been sitting, Angeal to one side and Tseng to the other.

"Don't even think it," Vant warned.

"But she—" Anthony began in true child-like behavior, something he almost never displayed. In a way, him doing so was good, but not under those conditions.

"Is a civilian, a non-combatant," the man answered, kneeling in front of his 'son'. "Your skills and strength alone mean a single strike from you could do serious harm to a civilian. There is no honor, no glory, and no justification in harming a civilian, regardless of said civilian's behavior. Against someone who can fight back, I won't stop you from fighting, but _don't_ use what you know against those who can't fight back."

"So she's allowed to get away with being—being mean, and _I_ get punished for it?" the fourteen-year-old glared. "What's fair about that?"

"No one said she was going to get away with her behavior, brat," Kariya answered from where he'd stayed by the door, leaning on the wall beside it, and Shalua paled a bit. "But yours had to be stopped in the instant, not dealt with off the train."

"...I..." Anthony began, then looked down, a frown on his face.

"If it's any consolation, discipline and controlling your strength is something you _have_ to do if you want to join SOLDIER like you've said," Angeal told the boy. "Think of this as part of that control. And honor is never a useless thing to abide by."

Slowly, the younger boy nodded, then looked up and asked, "What's my punishment, then?"

"For now, as this is your first offense, an apology to the one you almost hurt—publicly. And I'll expect you to write up a report three pages long on why you must control your strength and not use it on civilians. You have three days, and while I would prefer you hand it to me, that may not be possible, so you could hand it to any of the adults here in SOLDIER or the Turks," Vant told his 'son', who stared at him in mixed amazement and horror. "I know, it's a learning curve after your lack of interaction with others, especially other children, for most of your life."

"Okay..." Anthony agreed quietly, heaving a sigh. After a minute, he straightened up and stood, crossing back to Shalua with his hands held stiffly at his sides, but said in a rather heart-felt tone, "I'm sorry for almost hitting you, Shalua. Even if I was angry, I shouldn't have done that."

She blinked at him, then sighed and said, "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have been teas...Well, taunting you, about how you were looking out at the city because I knew you've never seen it before."

After a pause, they both smiled at each other and Anthony sat beside her again, turning to face the window and look outside with interest again.

Situation abated, the ride mainly proceeded in silence, other than the whispers of the other passengers about what they'd just witnessed. When they got off at the Sector 1 train station on the Upper Plate, Kariya asked the others to wait while he took Shalua aside to hold a quiet discussion with her. They returned after several minutes, and the girl actually looked miserable as she fell in with Genesis and gripped his hand tightly in hers—something she generally wouldn't do. As they made their way to the Shinra building, Anthony joined them on her other side.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked quietly. While his expression was pretty bland, his voice held a bit of concern. "What did he do to you?"

She gave a small, watery chuckle as her brother's lips twitched, but he pretended he couldn't hear them. Shalua answered, "Mostly, I just got scolded. But, the worst thing about being scolded by your Mom or Dad is how they're just so disappointed in you, and you feel guilty for disappointing them. After Mom died, I thought I was done with that, but now...I guess Dads are as good at it as Moms are."

The boy blinked and reached up to rub the back of his head as he said, "I guess that explains why I felt compelled to try to make things better with my—Dad when he gave me that scolding."

"Parents are great at that, aren't they?" she asked with a small sigh.

Anthony had to snort at that. Both were quiet for the rest of the walk, and when they got to the building in the middle of the city, Tseng and Sephiroth led the way inside the museum-like first floor and lobby. Before they got far, a concerned-looking man in a Turk uniform ran up to Tseng and stopped in front of him, a blue-eyed blond with curly, flyaway hair and who looked only about eighteen.

"Tseng, thank Bahamut you're here! Veld left for something, saying if something serious came up to hand it to you when you got here, but you weren't here and there's only three of us on duty right now!" the young man said in a rush.

"What's the matter, Quis (4)?" the Wutain Turk asked, stance changing to a much more commanding one.

"There's terrorists—but we're not really sure who because they don't seem to have a target and aren't naming themselves—running around attacking several Sectors, and we have intel that some are headed here. Most of the Infantry were dispatched to the Slums to deal with several conflicts and explosions there, and over half of SOLDIER are away on missions or vacations. This is the least defended the city's ever been, and there aren't enough of the remaining SOLDIERs—mostly Thirds—and Infantry to take care of it. If they reach here—Shinra Headquarters is just short of defenseless," Quis explained as quickly and succinctly as he could.

"Where are the majority of their forces, besides the ones headed here?" Tseng asked sharply.

"They were coming in through Sector 3; Freyra and Ruluf are there, along with the last three Seconds who were here—all newly-promoted—and a small unit of nine Thirds. Since then, they've almost taken over Sector 2, so that would be the most concerning area—the Thirds sent there were over-run and the survivors took to blocking them out of Sectors 1 and 4, not completely successfully, but better than if they hadn't done it."

With a nod, Tseng spun and faced Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis. "I hate to ask this of you before you've even been registered as back on standby duty, but under the circumstances, could you join the offensive here?"

"Tseng, you have no need to ask," Sephiroth answered dryly. "I will head to Sector 2, and Angeal can see what is happening in 3. If things seem to be under control, he can join me in 2," the sliver haired man answered right away, then faced Genesis. "If things are this bad, we need you here, because I know you will not allow them through those doors. And I have no doubt they will turn up here before this is over."

After a pause, Genesis nodded and said, "I'll take care of it."

"Good. We will all call the Director in succession, let him know we have returned and what we are doing in defense of Midgar, and have him reactivate us for duty," Sephiroth stated, then faced Tseng as Angeal pulled out his PHS to call Lazard, already heading for the front doors as he tossed his travel bag against the wall behind the information desk—and well away from the lobby doors. "Finish up what you need to do and stay in touch with us in case things go the worst route."

"I will," Tseng nodded, and Sephiroth also headed for the doors, tossing his bag in the same general direction as Angeal had. The Wutain man then faced the people he had left to direct and pursed his lips. "Lazard and I are the only commanders available at the moment, and I have the cameras, so I have to stay here, in our command center. I'm keeping Quis as my legs for now. Rude, Kariya, go to Sector 2 and help Sephiroth get things under control. Vant, Eden, for the same reason the General left Genesis here, I'm leaving you. And Eden, if I call you to intercept climbers, do you think you'll be able to get to them fast enough?" (5) Rude and Kariya were already leaving as their bags—and Genesis'—found their ways behind the information desk as well.

"From what I saw of the building on the way in, it's child's play to climb, so yes," Eden answered with a nod. "Could you take my bag with you, though? I won't have much luck fighting with it on and I don't have anyplace for it to be taken to yet."

Tseng nodded and took the bag when Eden pulled it off (Vant also offered his bag to the man, and it was taken), then faced Quis and said, "Get everyone on this floor and the shop floor up to the waiting room on third. We don't want casualties, whether visitors or employees, so they need to be well-outside the battle zone. While you're doing that, get those two—Shalua Rui and Anthony Valentine—up to the Academy office so they can get started on the application papers. It'll hopefully keep them from worrying too much. Once you've dropped them off, return to the command center. I'm heading up right now." He was striding away as soon as he finished talking.

Quis faced the group (or what was left of it) and said, "We need a way to clear the room quickly, and Turks don't usually have the ability to do that without a gun." (6)

"Give me a minute," Genesis said as he pulled out his PHS and dialed it. After a short pause, he said, "I think you've guessed, but the three of us are back. The invaders are heading for the Shinra building, so I'm guarding here and making sure the visitors and employees will be off the first two floors. I'm going to activate the door locks which will trigger the defenses both outside and inside, so warn any Thirds who haven't yet been dispatched of them." He then hung up and turned to face the lobby.

A brilliant, white-red light blasted across the ceiling and shorted out almost all the machines and lights, which caused everyone to yelp, jump, or scream in shock and fear, then look for the source. "Attention everyone!" he boomed out, and all eyes went to him and the Turks at his sides. "There is a situation in the city. It is being dealt with by Shinra forces. However, there has been a security breach, and for your own safety, we ask that you proceed calmly to the third floor or above, employee or visitor. You may, at this time, use either the elevators." He paused there to point dramatically in the direction of the elevators to the left side of the central room. "Or, you may use the stairs." He pointed at the back of the room as he said that. "You will be informed when it is safe to return to your usual business, both within Shinra Headquarters and in Midgar."

"Thanks," Quis quietly told Genesis, then stepped forward and raised his voice as he called, "Please move along! Elevators take time, so those with movement issues who cannot use the stairs, please go to the elevators first. Everyone else, start in the direction of the stairs."

With his direction, people began moving toward the two named destinations, and he helped direct them at first, until Vant took over at the elevator bank and Eden at the stairs. He then headed to the second floor, where they'd realized something was going on and were ready to take direction, though he had at least remembered to take the two kids with him. As the people who had been at the shops began moving up using the stairs, he took the two kids to the Academy office on the fourth floor, told them they were new students with relatives in Shinra, and left them there to begin filling in the paperwork. Finally, he was on his way to Tseng's office.

Meanwhile, Genesis had gone to the security panel by the entrance doors as soon as Quis took over directing people, and had begun typing access codes in to it, causing the doors to seal and lock as gun turrets (7) began popping up outside, at the ready. The front doors were clear glass, so he stood back several feet from them as he looked outside, thanking the lights he'd knocked out, which would make it harder for anyone outside to see in. Eden and Vant were directing people, so he was currently the only guard on the doors—and he could feel the danger approaching, knew it in his bones.

"You feel it, too, don't you?" Vant asked quietly as he returned to Genesis' side.

"At first, I would have thought I was left behind to be protected because they saw me as weak, but I have a feeling something is coming—something strong. Something not much different from Deepground in strength," Genesis answered.

"I figured. I feel it, too," Eden said from behind the red haired man. "I used to think the same thing about being left on guard duty. But—no army is coming to help us."

"I know," the red haired man answered with a nod. "At least, I do now."

"So, now we just wait for them to penetrate this far, and thank the Goddess no one knew we would be returning just now to head them off," Vant said.

"And thank the Goddess Eden recruited you and Kariya just then, and got there in time to save me from Weiss," Genesis replied in amusement.

"Looks like it's starting," Eden said as some people began approaching the building and got into a fire-fight with the turrets Genesis had activated.

It was indeed time.

 **Notes:**

(1) Ama no Murakumo is another 'legendary blade' in Japan (or Wutai in Gaia's case), similar to the Murasame or Masamune. I used Ama no Murakumo because any of the data I could find about its skills were the same 'type' as the kind of skills I'm giving Ed's blade with the 'illusion stones' I created for the purposes of this story.

(2) This is an added effect which happens in some other games with Phoenix, and I'm placing it at a level of healing somewhere between Cure 2 and Cure 3. FFVII's Phoenix should technically only be able to attack and resurrect—though I've had times, strangely enough, where it also gave healing.

(3) I don't think there was ever any pizza in Amestris for Ed to call it a pizza or a pizza plate like the FFVII series called Midgar's Upper Plate, so the next nearest thing Ed can reference is a pie/pie plate.

(4) Quis = Nunchaku (male), but he didn't have a name from some sort of event, so I just picked a random name for him. Well, not quite random, but random enough.

(5) When I look at that fancy-ass (to quote Barret) Shinra building in Midgar, it actually has a ton of places someone like Ed or attackers of a certain capability could use to climb up the outside wall of it. We also never get to see what the back of the building looks like in pictures I've looked up, so I'm assuming that's the easier side to climb, and it's the direction both the landing pad (no, unlike some people, I don't believe everyone who wanted to use a helicopter would have to WALK THROUGH THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE to get to it) and the balcony outside the President's office faces.

So, there are four routes, not two, into this Shinra Building—there's a stair (but it's actually not so easy to get in to at this point as it gets sealed in the lockdown, too), the front door on the main floor, the landing pad entrance (also heavily sealed in the lockdown), or the balcony entrance to the President's office by climbing the building.

(6) Even if Quis had known Vant had a gun, he would have asked Genesis, because Vant's gun (and I'm going to assume all Turk guns) has a silencer. Yeah, no loud 'bang' to attract attention. No Turk would be that stupid except maybe Kariya. :D

(7) This is essentially the enemy called a Machine Gun in the original FFVII main game, which were found inside the Shinra Building. 7 years earlier, I figure they'd be outside instead. And there really aren't laser weapons besides Fuhito's yet (those are in the process of being developed for combat), so there are no Laser Guns anywhere.


	40. 40-Reactor Reaction

**A/N:** Be aware that I'm presenting most events as the whole event, so several things are actually happening at the same time, even if I'm only working with one right then.

Reactor Reaction

Outside in the city of Midgar, in Sector 3, Angeal had seen the Turk Ruluf easily handling a few of the invaders, so passed by to check more of the Sector. He came to a group of four SOLDIERs, three clad in the light blue uniform of Thirds and one dressed in the purple of a Second. The Thirds wore their helmets, but the Second left his off, showing wild, spiky, black hair falling a little past his shoulders and a grinning face with brilliant blue Mako eyes. Since Angeal was currently on a rooftop to get a better view of the situation, he had a good vantage point and knew how many invaders were still running around. Where were they all coming from and what was their goal?

"Ready for the next street?" the Second asked the Thirds with him, drawing the First's attention back to the small group. They gave grins and nods, so he turned to a nearby street.

The street in question had almost two dozen of the invaders on it, and when Angeal looked further past them, he realized it was the street leading to the Sector's Mako Reactor, and some of them were obviously trying to get the Reactor door open (1). Curious about how the Second would handle the situation, Angeal followed as he observed—he knew who Zack Fair was, and with his short attention span, the man was often puzzled by how he'd even made it to Second. Maybe he'd get a chance to see how for himself.

Despite the Second's short attention span, he seemed to realize the situation was serious and didn't just rush headlong around the corner, using hand signals to halt the other three behind him as he took a look around. His gaze traveled the street, at first picking out the enemies there—then halting on the Reactor gates before widening as he pulled back. Turning to the Thirds, he leaned close to whisper to them, and the four held a soft discussion before nodding to one another and separating, Zack turning to walk right out into the middle of the street. The Second's gaze was both steady and excited as he drew his sword loudly—Angeal almost groaned at the fool making a target of himself, then stopped and looked around for the Thirds.

It took him a minute to find them as all the nearby enemies converged on Zack and the other enemies had their eyes on the Second. The Thirds, on the other hand, had climbed onto the metal escape stairs along the first building they'd started from, and were using those stairs on each building to cross from building to building—all outside the view of the enemies focused on Zack. Angeal's lips curved up in faint amusement as the sixteen-year-old Second launched himself into battle with the ones attacking him, grinning wildly as he fought, his battle cry an exuberant, "Bring it on!"

So, the boy had seen the problem—the clear danger to the Reactor—and as the most skilled of the group had chosen to act as the decoy so the Thirds could reach and secure the Reactor. Short attention span or not, the boy was an intelligent and capable commander, and his combat skill was high as well. For a sixteen-year-old, he was also well-built so he could handle the SOLDIER-issue broadsword easily, probably even without the Mako enhancements. His energy level was also through the roof, and his good cheer was infectious—Angeal knew it drove all the other Thirds and Seconds crazy.

Eyes going back to the Thirds, the man saw them reaching the Reactor doors, jumping down from above to kill the ones focused on the control panel. They quickly secured the doors and turned to face the nearest enemies, taking down a couple—only for the rest to abandon the Reactor and rush Zack, to the horror of the Thirds. A glance at Zack showed him being pushed back, and with the new additions, he was in trouble.

Abandoning his watch, Angeal jumped down into the fray around Zack, taking out several on his landing and two more with his return swing before jumping to land beside the younger Second. "Need a hand, Second Zack Fair?" he asked in mild amusement.

"I never expected them all to rush me like that!" the boy pouted, then grinned. "But thanks a bunch, Commander! You have great timing!"

By then the invaders were recovered and jumping at them again, so Angeal and Zack fought side-by-side, matching each other's blows and the younger adjusting his sword use based on the older's skills. It only took a few minutes to finish the battle, and Zack still had enough energy to jump up and down as he cheered their success.

"Cool it, Puppy!" Angeal boomed out, making the Second jump in surprise and spin to face him.

"Puppy?" Zack asked, face showing pure confusion. "Hey, weren't you on holiday until tomorrow? Why are you here now?"

Snorting, Angeal sighed and said, "Yup, the attention span of a puppy. Now wait while I call in to Tseng about the attack on the Reactor—I think they're going after every Reactor in the city." He pulled out his PHS and dialed Tseng's number.

"What have you found, Angeal?" Tseng immediately asked.

"One of the Seconds and the Thirds he was commanding waylaid an attack on the Sector 3 Reactor. Divert some of your forces to check on and secure the other city Reactors or we could be in big trouble," he told the man.

"I'll do that. How are the Second and the Thirds? I can't see the battle would have been in their favor..."

"They're fine—the Second acted as the decoy so the Thirds could secure the Reactor, and the enemy abandoned their attempt. I intervened when they rushed the Second. With the Reactor here secure, I'll head into Sector 2 with Second Fair to help Sephiroth get that under control. Once we're done, I'll call you to find out where the next unguarded Reactor is."

"Understood. Thanks for the heads-up, and call ahead to Sephiroth to let him know. Also, if he's not already at or near the Reactor, head there yourself to save us all some trouble. We don't have much time left to stop the attack if I'm reading things right."

"Will do."

When Angeal hung up, Zack asked, "Why are you reporting to Tseng when our Director is Lazard? Also, why to Tseng instead of Veld?"

Sighing in exasperation, the man said, "Let's head for Sector 2 while I explain."

"Sure!" Zack agreed with a grin, then yelled over to the Thirds, "Keep the Reactor secure! I'm heading to Sector 2 to secure it with the Commander!" They waved to show they'd heard, so the First and Second headed in the direction of Sector 2. "So, what's going on, Commander?" the boy asked as they ran.

"First, yes, I was on vacation and was expecting to go back on-duty tomorrow, but when we all arrived back here, we walked into this mess. Tseng was handed command because Veld left for some reason, and asked us to help under the circumstances. We reported to Lazard to have him put us back on active duty, but because the Turks have all the cameras, the Director isn't much help in an attack on this scale. He understands that, and will only relay data he's getting from the current acting head of the Turks—Tseng. Does that cover all your questions?" the man asked.

"Huh. Do you have any clue what's really going on? Who are all these people?" Zack asked, showing real concern for the first time.

"So far, we don't have confirmation, but we know they're heading for Shinra Headquarters, too. Genesis and a couple powerful Turks stayed there to defend it from direct attack. By their attempts to target the Reactors, they're probably eco-terrorists, but if that means they're any particular group, we don't know," Angeal explained.

They got to a corner which gave a good path up to the rooftops to make their trip to Sector 2's Reactor faster, so he stopped and pulled out his PHS again, putting a call through to Sephiroth. It was answered by a panting Sephiroth who said, "I hope you are calling to tell me you are coming to help."

"Are you near Sector 2's Reactor?" he asked, even as Zack stared at him.

"No. There is no way I can get there anytime soon. Why?"

"They're targeting the Reactors. I'm taking a Second I found in Sector 3 to the Reactor in 2 with me. Once we've secured it, I'll leave him to guard it and see if I can get to you. Where are you?"

"Around—Villa Square. The warehouses are about three blocks from here."

"Got it. I'll get there as soon as I can."

"Good to know."

They hung up and Angeal faced Zack to say, "Follow me and keep close—we're going the direct route to the Reactor."

"Okay," the boy agreed, so he jumped to the first ledge, then the second and third and fourth, right up to the top of the building. Behind him, he heard the boy yelp and and whine just like a puppy, but a glance back showed him Zack wasn't far behind, expression determined.

From the rooftop, he quickly charted a course across the tops of the buildings, Zack keeping close. It didn't take them long to get to Sector 2's Reactor, where they found a group twice as large as the one in Sector 3, with two of them setting a bomb on the door. Zack hissed and was about to jump down when Angeal gripped his shoulder.

"You let me go first and distract the bulk of them—once I've got their attention, go after the ones at the door and get that bomb off it. Clear—Puppy?" the man asked with a small smile.

"Man, stop calling me that!" Zack whined. "Fine, go, then, or they'll blow up the doors before we get down there."

Angeal hesitated for only a moment before drawing his Buster Sword to activate his Demi Blade, then dove down on them. The damage scale was huge, and even as he sheathed his Buster Sword to draw the SOLDIER-issue sword he normally fought with, he knew all their attention would be on him. After all, he'd taken ten of them out of the battle with his entrance. Even as he turned to battle the rest, he caught a glimpse of Zack landing to take out most of the ones at the Reactor doors, then getting to the last two before the bomb went off.

A few moments later, a huge blast rocked the sector, ripping a hole in the street and killing most of the enemies as he was thrown back. In the smoke, he couldn't see anything outside a few small fires nearby, so called in alarm, "Zack! SOLDIER Zack Fair, report!" There was no answer, so he finally yelled, "Hey, Puppy!"

"Don't call me that!" a voice far away answered, followed by coughing. Well, at least now he knew the Second was still alive and aware, which was a _very_ good thing.

Silence fell and the smoke began settling, so he moved closer to the edge of the hole now becoming visible—and he could only stare in shock at the site of the explosion. He was suddenly very glad most of the area was only warehouses.

"What the bloody Hell were those fools _thinking_?" a familiar voice asked in horror from beside him. Angeal turned to look and saw the doctor who had done the transfusion for him and Genesis what felt like so long ago now.

"You know who's doing this?" the First asked.

Looking up at Angeal, the doctor said, "Commander, I would never have helped any of them had I known they intended to—to do something like this! I recognize some of the members as ones from AVALANCHE, though I had been led to believe they both had a fairly small group and were nowhere near ready to launch an attack on anyone. Though, there _do_ seem to be a large number of them I don't recognize, as well..."

Angeal faced the hole again and asked softly, "So what changed to make them launch an attack like this?" The doctor just shook his head.

When his PHS rang, Angeal checked the number and answered it—only to have Tseng ask sharply, "What the Hell happened to the Reactor?"

"Well, the fact that Zack is still alive and hopefully unharmed probably means the Reactor's fine, but there's a hole half the size of the Reactor in the middle of the city in front of it." Angeal moved closer to the edge of the hole and looked down as he heard Tseng give a tired sigh, adding, "The hole goes right down—part of the Plate fell on the Slums. At least six of the warehouses in the area are badly damaged, but I don't think there were explosives in any of them. So far, it also doesn't look like there were people in these ones in particular, so it was just the invaders who died. If a local of Sector 2 is to be believed, they're AVALANCHE, but all indications had pointed to them being both a 'small' group and nowhere near ready to attack Shinra."

"AVALANCHE...Well, that sure puts a spin on things. What changed?" Tseng asked tiredly.

"No clue. But you can't afford to send anyone here now, can you?"

"No—there's no one available. Can you confirm Fair's safety and retrieve him?"

Looking across the way, Angeal saw that the smoke had dissipated enough to see the far side, where he could see Zack lowering his arm from his face. The boy was streaked with soot, but on his feet and pressed back against the Reactor door, his feet at the very edge of the hole on his side. By the looks of things, the boy's saving grace was a broken pole which had effectively bent and twisted to pin him by his shoulder to the Reactor door just enough to hold him without seriously harming him. The pole had also acted as a guard to keep other debris from hitting him.

"He's probably got a few minor injuries, but he's on his feet, alert and aware, so my only concern is the fact that he's standing on a strip of land about five inches wide between the hole and the Reactor's door," Angeal explained.

"Okay. Can he reach the control panel for the Reactor door?" Tseng asked.

"Give me a minute," he said, then lowered the PHS from his ear and looked back at the Second. "Doing all right, Zack?"

"Yeah—but this ledge is crumbling and there's no way to get off it," the sixteen-year-old called back.

"Can you reach the Reactor door's control panel?" Angeal asked.

The boy looked around for it, then warily shifted himself out from under the pole and inched closer to the panel until he could put his hand on it, the other hand keeping a grip on the pole that had pinned him down before. "Yeah, looks like it. Why?"

Phone back to his ear, Angeal said, "He can reach it and I can see from here that no debris is covering it."

"Tell him to open it and type in the code 4-H-M-6-0-N-Y-U-6."

"Which will do what? And you want that code to be public knowledge?"

"Doesn't matter, we'll just change the access codes later. It'll open the doors for him so he's not on that ledge. I'll send a chopper to pick him up when the situation in the city is dealt with," Tseng answered, then hung up. A moment later, he got a text message from Tseng with the code typed in to it and nothing else.

Blinking, Angeal called to Zack, "Open the panel so you can type in a code to open the door."

Zack looked over at him in surprise, then moved closer to the panel so he could get it open, then shifted to balance himself while using one hand on the panel. "Code?" he called back.

"4-H-M-6-0-N-Y-U-6."

As soon as the boy typed in the last number, the doors groaned, but slid open sideways so Zack could step onto solid ground. He faced Angeal and asked, "What now?"

"You'll have to wait there until Tseng can send a chopper to pick you up. Sorry about that," the man told him in a heart-felt tone, putting his PHS away.

"Not your fault. Those idiots made the bomb," Zack grinned. "Pity I can't do more, but I was supposed to be keeping the Reactor secure, anyway, so...Hey, I can keep it secure from here, too!"

Chuckling, Angeal gave his head a shake and agreed, "Good point." He then asked in concern, "Are you injured enough to need any care?"

"Some bruises. My shoulder's probably going to ache something awful tomorrow, but I'd rather that than to've fallen down the hole. What about the people down there?"

"They're either already dead or the Infantry sent to take care of things down there will be taking care of survivors," Angeal replied.

"I hope," the doctor muttered, and the man beside him gave a small sigh.

"Okay," Zack agreed, then took a quick look around and moved over to another panel on the inside of the door. "See you later, then! Good luck, Commander!" The door then slid shut, hiding the sixteen-year-old from view.

"Commander, do you have any idea how bad the situation is?" the doctor asked in concern, blinking when Angeal shook his head.

"Oh, it's bad, but how bad is the question," the man answered. "Be ready to seek out your usual patients, because they may not all be able to reach you. In the meantime, I'm going to go find and help Sephiroth." He turned and bolted, heading in the direction of Villa Square, the last known location he had for his friend.

It didn't take long to find him, and the Square was swamped with enemies as the silver haired man struggled with a group of five Thirds to hold them off. He didn't hesitate to jump right into the fray.

CA

Inside Shinra Headquarters, Genesis, Eden, and Vant watched the fire-fight the invaders were having with the turrets, which seemed to be doing their job at first.

"Am I just imagining things, or do a lot of those men and women look Wutain?" Eden suddenly asked with a frown. Despite their piece-meal uniforms which were just like the Caucasian terrorists', it was more like looking at a wall of half Xingese and Amestrian people—and his previous experiences with the Xingese—or Wutains—was that they were formidable at the best of times. As such, the dynamic he was seeing actually worried him.

Drawing in a sharp breath, Genesis scanned the group again, then pulled out his phone to call Tseng.

"What's the matter?" the man asked right away.

"Eden just made a good point—about half of the attackers, maybe more, coming up on Headquarters look Wutain," the red haired man replied. "Does that change this?"

" _Oh, it changes it_. Tell Eden to get outside and start climbing the building, because they _will_ take that route if they aren't already. I'll switch some of the cameras to the outside building walls, and tell Eden to activate his disconnectable microphone. I'll need it to direct him on his climb." Tseng then hung up.

Hanging up his own phone, Genesis gave an impressed whistle and said, "I envy you Turks for you technology. Okay, Tseng says the Wutains will definitely climb, so you'll need to get out there, and he said to activate your microphone so you two will be able to communicate while you climb. Handless! I'd love that myself!"

Chuckling, the blond pulled out his PHS and fiddled with the top section where Freyra had shown him the microphone was what felt like so long ago until a small section at the top came off. He blinked at it for a minute as he assessed the fact that the round earpiece was the same as the top of the phone he held his ear to. Slipping the device into his ear, he adjusted it to a comfortable position which lined up the arm and the rounded head of the arm to his cheek and mouth. Looking at the PHS again, he opened it to see a diagram with a few instructions, so followed them, flicking the switch on the outside of the earpiece and dialing Tseng's number on the device.

"How are things looking on your end, Eden?" Tseng asked him a few moments later, the voice coming through the device in his ear.

"So far, the main-level turrets are holding, but Genesis activated the building security system, so I can't get outside on the lower levels until someone blows up a wall or you direct me to another exit," Eden replied.

"I see," he heard a faint sigh. "No, you don't have the card yet to get here from below, and I can't hand you mine when I need to use it. We'll see how things go, but I'm expecting things to get worse before they get better, so head outside and start climbing as soon as you're able. Stay in contact in the meantime, and ignore me if I sound like I'm addressing something else—if I'm addressing you, I'll start with your name."

"I'll do the same, then," the blond offered.

"Fair enough. I'm going to be acting as a call center for a bit, so tune the rest out."

Since Ed had heard a phone ringing in the background, he knew the next words the man said were to the caller, so turned his attention back to the front doors as he folded the PHS shut without deactivating it and stuck it in his pocket. From what he could hear from Tseng, the man was directing Freyra and Rude to Sector 4 to see about containing the spread as the two had been separated from their previous partners and had wound up finding their ways to each other. Outside the front doors, some of the turrets had been destroyed by someone around a corner shooting with a laser-style gun rather than the normal ones.

And Eden felt the three shards of Zirconaide tugging him in the direction of the attackers outside their doors.

"So, I'm going to have to head up the building as soon as I feasibly can, and it sounds like this won't be an easy battle if they're Wutain," the sixteen-year-old told Genesis and Vant.

"Are you sure you should be the one to climb?" Vant asked after a pause.

Before Ed could answer, Genesis saw a new arrival outside and shouted, "Tseng, get Lazard to your command center in case you have to leave!"

The new man outside jumped past the rest of his people and hit the remaining turrets with rapid knife slashes, punches, and kicks, causing them to blow up.

Under the explosion noise, Ed heard Tseng say, "Eden, I heard the warning."

"Good," the teen breathed out in something like relief. It spared him the trouble of having to waste time repeating it under the circumstances.

 **Notes:**

(1) In the FFVII main game, most of the Reactors (the ones in Midgar, anyway) have an outside section which is open to the air but surrounded by a high, sturdy wall, then a second door into the Reactor interior. Before Crisis left the impression that there was only a door directly into the Reactor interior. I'm using the first description, meaning there are two 'outside' doors for the terrorists and invaders to get through before they can get to the actual object they need to blow up.


	41. 41-Wutain Assault

**A/N:** See the notes at the end of the chapter for my note on the Wutai War.

Be aware of two things in this chapter—first is that every time Genesis and his opponent are exchanging blows, they are several minutes long, I just really didn't feel up to writing a play-by-play that long. The second point is that the end section of the chapter jumps around quite a bit, but there was really no other way to do this, and please, _please_ let me know if there's something I could do to make that part more comprehensive.

Wutain Assault

Once the turrets outside Shinra Headquarters were destroyed, the man, who had brown, flyaway hair just past the shoulder and dressed in a militia-like style with a gray shirt and camo pants and bandanna stopped in front of the doors to put something down. The something now sitting in front of the glass doors looked like a bomb. He jumped back a moment later, and the three inside traded wary looks, then ducked—and sure enough, shortly after he got out of blast range, the bomb went off, shattering the doors, part of the wall, and the concrete below where it sat. Dust blasted through the air, and Genesis and Eden covered their mouths and noses with their sleeves.

People could be heard approaching as the dust cleared, and one of them was a gruff man who commented, "Even with the turrets, I'm surprised this has been so easy. Shin-Ra should be better defended than this."

"Well, this was the plan. Why is it so surprising?" a woman's voice answered, sounding oddly flat.

As the smoke began clearing, the three defenders stood, both Genesis and Eden sending up walls of Fire 3 strength fire to force the attackers to stay in the range of the hole in the wall. A secondary action from the red haired man caused a blast of a mild Tornado to sweep through the room and out the doors, taking most of the debris and smoke with it. Of course, on the way, the debris pelted the enemy, causing yelps of pain and shock—and with the air clear, the walls of fire to either side of the hole lighting up the area, the enemy and their three leaders fell into high relief. There was the man who had placed the bomb, a brown haired woman with her hair cut short and dressed mostly in green who held a sword in one hand, and one other man dressed in gray who had Wutain looks and glasses—

"You!" the Wutain man said sharply, lips pressed into a fine line. "A Turk. No wonder you wouldn't join AVALANCHE!"

"I wasn't a Turk when I refused, Fuhito. I just have enough of a brain to know there's no chance of fixing the situation from outside it," Eden replied dryly as everyone stared between the two in shock and amazement—and he'd just tracked the shards.

"You know the Reactors have to be destroyed!" the man accused.

"He's not the only one who realizes that, and we're ten steps ahead of you," Genesis threw in dryly.

"And that's not the point, because not only did Neo Bahamut utterly reject you, but I'm sure you haven't bothered to start searching for a way to give energy back to the Lifestream. To make matters worse, you probably never found the data stating that killing rampantly runs a very high risk of sending the world into self-destruct mode," Ed informed the group. Several pairs of wide eyes sought their neighbors'.

"Why don't you Summon Neo Bahamut and ask him what he thinks of you joining the Planet's destroyers," the man answered with a small smirk, but frowned as Ed smiled and Genesis smirked.

"Neo Bahamut gave me the right to give his shard to someone else, with the restriction that he be allowed to judge the person as worthy or unworthy, and should my choice be unworthy, I would have to keep his shard until someone turned out to be worthy," the blond said, then motioned at Genesis.

"He found me worthy, and even gave me advice on which Materia to keep on me at all times," Genesis finished, still smirking.

"Impossible! You manipulated him somehow," the Wutain man scowled. "And it doesn't change the fact that Shin-Ra is the enemy, and you're a Turk—absolutely the enemy!"

Into Ed's ear, Tseng said urgently, "Eden, get out there _now_! Blow the door up yourself if you have to, but get out there!"

Tipping his head to the side slightly, the blond teen gave a smirk and said, "Well, it appears I don't have any more time to chat, but there's no way I'm going to make this easy for you."

With that, he shot forward in a move so sudden no one had time to react to it, and before they knew it, Fuhito was unconscious and Eden was tearing through their forces, a blue, fragmented shard of Materia in one hand and Ama no Murakumo in the other. For his part, Ed had already assessed the fact that he couldn't retrieve the shard of Zircondaide on the woman because it was 'in' her arm, so all he was worried about was the one he _could_ retrieve (and shove in his pocket, which he quickly did as he'd need his hands to climb). Also, he didn't have the inclination to chop her arm off or the time to find another way, so got past the group at the front doors and started jumping and climbing up the building. The fire on Eden's side of the hole in the wall went out, so Genesis threw up another wall of fire to fill the space.

After a pause, the woman raised her sword and faced the two still inside as she said, "We're going to get through here, whether you like it or not. You don't stand a chance, no matter which of you fights which of us."

"We shall have to see about that. Are you the one considered the 'leader' here?" Genesis asked her, drawing Rapier.

"I am, Commander Rhapsodos. My name is Elfé."

"Let's see how you measure up, then, Elfé."

With those words, the two swordsmen shot at each other and clashed in the middle with an impact so strong it sent out a shock wave which unbalanced the others near them. As they began exchanging blows, some of the regular members tried to slip past, only to be shot by Vant (whose weapon was fitted with a silencer), even when Genesis and Elfé were in the way. The other remaining AVALANCHE leader realized he was dealing with the most skilled sharpshooter he'd ever seen, to hit his actual targets around moving interference, so jumped at him in an attempt to take the black haired Turk's attention off the others.

As Vant dodged by jumping into the air, Elfé yelled, "Watch out for him, Shears!"

The man with the knives already knew that and was moving to dodge, expecting to be shot at—only for the Turk to shoot at other regular members trying to get by. That angered Shears and he yelled, "Fight me one-on-one like a man!"

"No offense meant, but you're the one with the number advantage, and my mission is to allow no one to pass, not to hold an 'honor match' with you," Vant answered blandly as he landed several feet from Shears.

Genesis and Elfé exchanged several more blows while the red haired man kept the walls of flames up, but the woman—who was younger than him for sure, at what looked like eighteen years old—was actually skilled enough to give him a run for his money. Maintaining the fire was starting to wear him down. At the same time, he couldn't let the other members through, and Vant could only keep their attempts in check because he was limiting the space they could enter through. He tried to think of something he could do to even the odds. An idea came to him suddenly, though it would still be a long shot under the circumstances.

Jumping back from her, he lifted his sword up to point it towards the ceiling and braced himself as he called, "Mighty Phoenix, come before me! Rebirth Flame!" The Phoenix surged to life from a cocoon of flames and spread its wings wide, then golden light centered on the bird and flashed outward, sending with it a wave of powerful fire which restored some of his and Vant's strength and did damage to the attackers. Many of them backed off, running back outside to escape the fire, while others found themselves inside and injured enough that it was hard to move. The bird then vanished, as did _all_ the fire in the area.

Of the ones still inside, Shears and Elfé seemed to be the only ones who had weathered the attack well, and both moved to attack Vant and Genesis again. When the other members started to return, the two building guards traded a quick, worried look, knowing they'd have a hard time stopping them all at that point.

"I'll take care of the weaklings!" a familiar voice called from behind Vant and Genesis. A quick glance showed Quis, so both gave a nod and turned back to their respective opponents. He jumped past them to start taking down the regular enemies with his nunchaku.

"We'll leave them to you, then, Quis!" Genesis yelled, then activated his Fire Blade attack and launched himself at Elfé. She activated an Ice Blade in response, making him blink at the resulting clash—which sent out a shock wave strong enough to knock both Vant and Shears to their knees—then grin as he said to her, "It's a new experience fighting someone on my level, rather than someone physically stronger. If the situation weren't so dire, I would say I'm enjoying myself."

Her lips actually quirked upward at that, her eyes showing amusement and respect. "Ironically, I feel the same. It is unfortunate that we're enemies."

"Maybe we don't have to be," the red haired man answered, but she threw him back and braced herself to launch another attack.

"I would never join Shin-Ra after everything they've done!" she answered with a glare. "All the people they've killed and hurt—you've done so as well!"

"I never said you had to join Shinra. That doesn't mean we have to be enemies. We're working to change things, and we've even had success. The problem is a lot bigger than just stopping the Reactors—that's a fact as well, something we can trace. We even found evidence explaining what will really happen if humans keep treating each other the way they have been. If we can't change the way society itself thinks, if we can't stop torture, greed, wanton murder, or at least greatly reduce them, we'll be in no better shape than we are now, regardless of the Reactors. I can say this because—the very being which heralds the world's pending destruction is here right now, awake, ready to bring about the world's end," Genesis revealed, even half-way quoting LOVELESS in his attempt to get the point across. He knew he was taking a chance since she might not believe him, but even if she didn't, if it made her start doubting just a little bit—that could go a long way.

"Impossible!" Elfé gasped, freezing as she stared at him.

"He lies!" Shears yelled as he managed to catch Vant's wrist and throw him. "He's trying to get you to let your guard down so he can kill you, Elfé!"

"If that was what I wanted, I'd have already done so the moment you froze," Genesis replied dryly, blade lowered in a relaxed grip.

"Also, his words are true," Vant added, landing near the red haired man easily after being thrown. "There is evidence out there. However, if you've looked into any of Shinra's past research projects, you'd find one on Chaos and Omega Theory, where all of this is noted, and the stagnant Mako pool still exists in a place where you could find it. Find out more—don't just assume the only problem you need to solve is the Mako Reactors. And don't assume destroying them without replacing that power with something else will save anything—it won't, it'll just create more suffering and hatred, which will destroy the world regardless, just as quickly as the Reactors are."

"Go now and we'll let you leave," Genesis added quietly. "Go now—retreat. Pull all your people back, or as many as you can."

"I can't believe you just said that, Commander!" Quis glared from the door, facing them with his nunchaku raised.

Vant and Genesis traded looks, then Vant said, "Call Tseng and see what he says."

At the words, Shears and Elfé traded uncertain looks, then the woman said, "There are ones we can't call back. Most of the Wutains who came here are doing this as a military operation (1), not as members of AVALANCHE—our plans just happened to coincide. We'd never have been able to launch this attack without that."

Genesis nodded and said, "We'll take care of the rest."

A long silence followed, then Elfé gave in and reached into her pocket. "Shears, get Fuhito. We'll need to have a nice, _long_ talk with him about neglecting to mention important information to us," she told the man, who sighed, but gathered the still unconscious man and threw him over his shoulder. Quis obviously wanted to stop them, but held back with a deep frown. The AVALANCHE forces then began retreating as some of the Wutains and the vast majority of non-Wutains began withdrawing from the city. (2)

As the leaders vanished around a corner down the street from the Shinra Headquarters, Genesis breathed a sigh of relief and Vant asked the younger, blond Turk, "Why didn't you call Tseng?"

"I can't. The only one he's still got contact with is Eden, and Lazard won't be able to answer my question," the blond admitted, then turned to face the advancing Wutain forces, who were planning on a rush at them. "They're coming!"

"Vant, can you and Quis handle them?" Genesis asked. "I have to get word to Lazard about the change in battle dynamic so he can tell everyone else."

"Easily," Vant agreed, heading for the doors to join Quis, every shot of his gun taking down one of the Wutains.

Meanwhile, Genesis dialed Lazard's number, and the man asked in mild surprise, "You're actually dialing my number, Commander?" when he answered.

"Yes. Apparently something happened which caused Tseng to leave you in charge of their command center, or so says Quis. We have some new information now which changes things," Genesis told him.

"I see. Something I have to pass on to everyone?"

"Yes. AVALANCHE was participating in another attack—apparently, Wutai decided to send a large number of their army here to attack our Headquarters. As AVALANCHE's leaders fled after being overpowered, they called for a retreat which their own members will abide by, as they weren't actually _intending_ or prepared for this. The forces remaining are a literal Wutain invasion, and if we don't stop them—well, you know as well as I do."

"Oh, for—no wonder Tseng ran for the President's office not long ago, worried about the Wutains climbing the building. And even though that new Turk—Eden, I think Tseng called him—is incredibly quick and skilled, he can't reach the top in time to stop them all, not with the number he has to try to take out on the way."

"And we're still fighting here, again with the Wutain soldiers. Check in with the others around the city to see how things are changing now. If the Wutains are still after the Reactors, we'll have to keep our forces spread thin."

"I'll pass word on. Keep me posted."

Hanging up, the red haired man let out a deep breath and shook his head, then looked out the hole in the wall to see how the two Turks were doing. While the numbers had been reduced, what was left were the Wutain troops, who were all Ninjas and stronger than the average person. It seemed with AVALANCHE's departure that the Wutains were letting loose and using their full skill—they'd been using the eco-terrorists as cover, literally. As such, he jumped back into the battle to help the Turks, keeping close to the doors so the Wutain troops couldn't penetrate the building.

CA

 _(Perspective—Eden)_

Outside, Eden had started climbing from just outside the doors, and had reached a two-foot-wide border several floors up which circled the building. Pausing there, the blond asked, "Tseng, which side are they on?"

 _(Perspective—Tseng)_

"Eden, at the back," Tseng answered immediately. "I'm watching them—I had no idea there were so many here, and these all look Wutain." The man was standing at the desk in the command center, eyes on the screens which had the building views on them. They weren't moving that fast yet, and the number was still manageable, so he forced himself to stay where he was.

As the door opened behind him, he saw Quis come back from activating the second floor's security lockdown codes, making anything third floor and above inaccessible from inside. "I'll let Lazard in," the blond said in keeping with the call he'd received from Tseng not long ago, so he gave a nod and Quis stepped out, leaving the door slightly ajar.

The door into the room was hidden from outside it—only the Turks knew where their Command Center was and how to access it, though now Lazard would know its general location. All the screens in the room made it imperative to keep it hidden, and there was frequently a faint, green glow coming off the screens while the rest of the room was at half-light or less. At the moment, it was rather dark in the room, the only light from the screens and the technology running them, and his bag along with the other two he'd brought with him had been discarded in one corner.

 _(Perspective—Eden)_

Eden started running along the border, glancing in the windows as he went—and he had to resist a snicker as he saw people's shocked expressions as he sprinted past. For what it was worth, the floor just looked like offices for regular businessmen and women, so held no actual interest to him, and nothing looked out of place there. As such, he kept going around the building as he commented, "Tseng, this is starting to look more like a military attack than a terrorist attack. Can I hazard a guess and say they're heading for the President's office?"

 _(Perspective—Tseng)_

There was a silence from Tseng's end as the man glanced around at other screens before turning his gaze back to the main building. The door opened again (though more quietly as it had been ajar), prompting him to glance at it, where Lazard had just come in and Quis was just closing the door behind the man. He had also just received notice of the explosion in Sector 2, so called Angeal to find out if he knew what had happened before going back to the screens and Eden's words.

After a second glance at the screens in front of him, he pursed his lips and said, "Eden, you may have hit on something in saying that. And yes, if they've bypassed every floor up to where you're at, you're probably right about their destination. Though, they can't access the other floors right now, either, unless they do it from the top or blow the walls up. If their targets are on the top floor, they'll save their ammunition for that."

 _(Perspective—Eden)_

The blond got far enough around the building to see the intruders and launched himself into the nearest, knocking him down and causing him to give a yell of shock before he fell unconscious. Several turned to look, and someone higher up shouted something. Eden was already launching an attack on the next man, and had jumped up a level to attack a third when he paused to look for his fourth target—only for something to flicker next to him. Clapping his hands together as though activating a transmutation, the teen dodged on instinct and reached his hands forward to access Comprehension.

He touched a man under the influence of the Mirage Materia's spell Invis.

"Shit! Tseng, they're using Mirage Materia to make themselves invisible!" he growled as he took the man out. He began to wonder as the man fell down the side of the building how long he'd be able to go on without killing—especially in these circumstances. This was worse than the battle against Father in Central, and there was no one else who could do the killing for him. Unfortunately, he had no time to think about that right then, so focused again on heading up.

 _(Perspective—Tseng)_

In the command center, the Wutain man almost doubled over as though he'd been punched in the gut. He froze for a moment, then forced himself to calm and look up at the screens again—and he drew in a sharp breath as he realized how many 'holes' had been left by the climbers. "Eden, do what you can to stop as many as possible, and work your way up to the top."

He then spun to face Quis and Lazard, saying, "Quis, go help Genesis and Vant hold off the ones on the main floor. Lazard, I have to let you take over here—I have to go, and we're very pressed for time."

When the other two nodded and Quis left the room while Lazard moved to the desk, Tseng left the PHS not connected to his ear with Lazard and bolted from the room, quickly overtaking Quis to the stairs.

 _(Perspective—Eden)_

Fighting his way up the outside of the building, the blond teen realized there was no way he'd be able to stop them, and they were climbing fast, so he stuck to clearing the ones nearest the side he was on. Some had started throwing stars and triangular daggers like Mei Chang had used (3) at him, so he was limited again by that, and he was actually getting tired from climbing the building, especially at the point where he had to bypass the landing pad. It was exhausting fighting his way up, and he was pretty sure he'd never be able to catch up to the ones who were the highest up. As such, he did what he could to reduce their numbers and hoped there was someone to protect anyone at the top—and through the whole building.

Every time someone fell down the side of the building because of his attacks, he winced.

And it still all felt like it was taking far too long, making him wonder if he'd be on time to keep them from reaching 'the top'. He didn't think he would.

 _(Perspective—Tseng)_

Inside, Tseng ran up the stairs, knowing the elevator would take longer under the circumstances. With no enemies to fight, he made good time, but it was only his training in discipline which kept him from dangerously over-exerting in his race to get to the President's office. Not long after, he sprinted through the executive office just below the seventieth floor, then up the red-carpeted stairs to the President's office.

When he saw all the Department heads and the President turn to look at him in surprise, he realized why the Wutains had chosen to attack now—the monthly report meeting. They were a scheduled event, after all, and widely-known.

"Forgive my intrusion," he said, going straight to the door leading to the balcony outside—and activating the lockdown codes for the President's office as he stepped out. As he slipped out the door, emergency doors, metal plating, and bullet-proof glass was already sliding into place to seal the room and secure it. Well, it wasn't impenetrable, but it was better.

A few moments later, he was drawing his gun from the middle of the balcony as the first man emerged over the top of the balcony rail-wall. More emerged, but some of those, he couldn't see. "Eden, what can I use to make them visible to me?" he asked, shooting the ones he could see.

 _(Perspective—both)_

"Have you got a Summon on you?" Eden asked in reply, taking another man out, then looking up. He only had 'a few' more floors, and he could see men falling as they were being shot.

"No," the Wutain man answered, stumbling—and feeling a very near-miss of a blow against he cheek. Turning, he shot the invisible man and jumped back.

"Have you got Earth or Gravity with an All?" the teen asked, knocking an invisible man down from the next floor of the building.

"Understood," Tseng said, then activated his Quake 3. While he hadn't been expecting it, the Materia cast actually somehow struck all of the invisible ones as well as the visible ones, causing all of them to suddenly become visible as they stumbled. "It worked, thanks. How close are you?"

"Almost there, a few floors," Eden replied, hearing a few more gunshots as Tseng took out some of the attackers who had Mirage before they could go invisible again.

"Good," the older man answered with a faint sound of relief in his voice.

 **Notes:**

I really couldn't find an actual end-date for the Wutai War, but I can't see that Genesis or Angeal and Zack would have been sent to Wutai to 'take Fort Tamblin' unless the war was actually still going on, which was in 0000. As such, the war is currently still in progress, this is just the tail end of it that meant Zack never got to become an actual war hero like he wanted (or thought he wanted, anyway).

Supposedly, the war ended back when Sephiroth was between 14 and 16, but it was never properly clarified and there's conflicting evidence. All we know for sure is that Seph went to Wutai when he was 14, but weren't told how long he was there or anything. There wasn't any data beyond 'implied' victory, so I'm sort of taking it as both sides coming to a stale-mate and backing off to 'nurse their wounds' until these events, while some skirmishes over Shinra-controlled land and Wutain-controlled land in Wutai were still being fought.

Regardless, the extended near-stalemate would have had a similar effect to an effective defeat where Wutai was concerned because it still left Shinra with a lot of power there. Tamblin would have been the breaking point, but events are obviously playing out differently now.

(1) In case anyone's wondering, the Emperor doesn't find out this is happening until it's too late to stop it. Like any country or group of people, it's impossible to keep everyone under control, and there are extremists in every group who will go out of their way to do things they shouldn't be doing, even against their leader's orders.

(2) If this seems abrupt to some readers, there are reasons for this which will be presented later in the story, and it'll be explained then.

(3) I don't know that Ed actually knows what these are called, he just knows what they look like, so no, I'm not naming the kunais here.


	42. 42-End Invasion

End Invasion

When the Wutains began going invisible again, Tseng cast Quake 3 on them all again, and kept shooting at them as they began swarming the balcony. At that moment, Eden shot over the edge of the balcony, sword in hand as he slashed down several of the Wutains. A jump much higher than anyone was expecting carried him from the edge of the balcony to Tseng's side, where he braced himself and tugged the device from his ear to put it in his pocket. Tseng did the same with his own device and held his gun at the ready.

Ed knew there was no way to avoid killing them anymore—there were too many and only two to protect everyone in the building. If only he could use alchemy freely...! But, he couldn't. He'd have to just not think about what he was doing now, otherwise he'd become a dead-weight, something he—and most of the civilians in the city—couldn't afford at the moment. He braced himself for the next attack.

Until one of the men asked the Wutain Turk, "Why are you fighting against your own people, 'Tseng'?"

Tseng's brow rose slightly and he commented, " _My people_? Interesting way to describe the same people who slaughtered my family, tortured me nearly to death, and threw me in the ocean to drown." (1) He heard Eden draw in a sharp breath, and the other men (and some women) frowned.

"So be it. Die with your new masters, _dog_ ," the man sneered.

Eden felt his hands tingling as the Wutains started forward again, and lifted his sword to grip the hilt with both hands, seeing something swirling softly around it. (2) For the life of him, he couldn't fathom what it was, because it had no relation to alchemy or Materia. Then he remembered the purple illusion stones—which he had no idea the actual capabilities of. To compound the issue, the stones would have a different effect depending on the weapon they were in...

Still, they didn't seem to really be doing anything and he and Tseng were both fighting for all they were worth, so he ignored the effect. It was hard to stay close to the man, especially because Tseng needed to have space to shoot from—and he suddenly realized they were both being idiots.

As they were shoved together, panting and surrounded, Eden said softly, "Get back against the windows and let me guard, Tseng."

"Can you against so many?" the man asked. "The Mirage—"

"I know my skills," the blond answered.

A short pause followed, then the next attack came and they both moved. Tseng shot the three men between him and the wall, putting his back to it as Eden moved to meet the next round of attacks—and unleashed everything he knew from years of fighting. He could now fight freely, and became his usual, constantly-moving whirlwind as he used his sword, his glove, and magic while Tseng shot his gun with deadly accuracy from behind him. In this case, the only difference was that Eden was playing for keeps, not pulling his punches. The Wutains started cursing as they attacked, but when some tried to go for the door into the office, Tseng turned his full attention to shooting them down while Eden took on the rest. Even then, some of the magic the blond was tossing around hit people Tseng hadn't been able to see, causing them to become visible so he could shoot them.

Finally, it was over. Around them were scattered so many bodies they'd lost count, nor did they care to start trying to take a tally. Eden wondered if any were still alive, but knew it probably wouldn't matter if they were—someone else would kill them or take them for 'questioning', then kill them. Both were panting heavily and had minor injuries, so Tseng moved up behind Eden, put his back to the sixteen-year-old's, and leaned. Eden leaned back, balancing them so they could both rest. After a pause, the younger also sheathed his sword, and Tseng's hands were trembling so badly he almost couldn't holster his gun or pull out his PHS. The blond leaned his head back against the older's shoulder as he struggled to get control of his breath.

"I don't suppose...you have the energy left...to cast a Cure?" the Wutain asked tiredly.

Eden snorted, "I wish. No...I'm too tired to...even draw and lift...Ama no Murakumo again. Please tell me...this invasion is over..."

"I'll know soon," Tseng answered with a small sigh, finally managing to lift his PHS to his ear as the number he needed was auto-dialing. Both ignored the door to the President's office opening as Tseng said into his phone, "Lazard, get everyone's reports...on the situation in...the city and ground floor...then call me back...to let me know...if there's anywhere else...we need to go." After a pause, he hung up.

"What the Hell is going on here, Tseng, and who the bloody Hell is that brat?" a deep, growling man's voice demanded harshly.

"Calm down, Heidegger. After that display of combat prowess and Turk teamwork, I daresay they'll be happy to come inside, sit down, and answer some questions," a woman's voice cut in, and both Eden and Tseng shuddered at the cold, hard edge in it.

Drawing in a deep breath, the Wutain man said in a mostly steady voice, "We have no objection to doing so once the situation is confirmed to be resolved. Until I have that call, we are on active duty during an invasion and cannot possibly take the time for such a luxury."

A moment later, his phone rang again and the man held it up to his ear—and groaned. He heard Eden give a heart-felt sigh as he said, "We'll head to Reactors 6 and 7, then. Find someone to go to 8 and make sure it's secure. Once the last has been deployed, have the others sweep the city while the Reactor guards and the guards here at Headquarters hold their positions. And send Genesis up the President's office to guard the balcony in case stragglers are still coming up here." He then hung up and shoved his phone into his pocket.

"How will we get to the Reactors fast enough?" Eden asked, still not ready to move.

The man dug in his pocket and pulled out a bottle, which he shoved into the boy's hand. "Ether. Drink it. We'll need some of your unique skills to get down there. As for the method—use that mind of yours to figure out how to give us wings or a ride to our destinations."

"Talk about a tall order, Tseng," the blond snorted as he obediently flipped the bottle open and downed the contents. The man and woman just watched intently.

"You love the challenge," the Wutain replied in amusement, causing Eden to chuckle tiredly. Of course, Tseng was completely correct, though both would have preferred other circumstances.

The contents of the Ether made the blond feel less exhausted, so he pushed himself away from the man, who re-balanced himself, as he turned his attention to the Summons he had on him. _:What can you four tell me about a way to fly?:_

 _:That would largely depend on what you mean by 'fly',:_ Titan answered him dryly, and the other three chuckled.

 _:Tseng—one of my friends and co-workers—and I need to cross a very large distance very quickly, and not only are we well over thirty meters above the level we need to get to, but over twice that in distance from our destinations,:_ the teen said.

 _:Well, did you not have Odin?:_ Ifrit asked curiously, though there was some concern in it, as well.

 _:Yes. Why?:_ Eden asked with a slight frown.

 _:Some Summons are not single entities, but two or more which function as one when the 'entity' is requested. For those with multiple entities, such as Odin, it is possible to Summon Sleipnir separately from his rider, and to ride the beast to your destinations. It would be far less a drain on you than any other option, Sentinel,:_ she told him, her voice a warning he recognized—he was going to over-extend himself if he wasn't careful.

Eden chuckled and gave a snort, prompting Tseng to ask, "What is it, Eden?"

Facing him, the blond drew Odin's shard and held it out to the man as he asked, "Recognize it?" Tseng tapped it—and his eyes widened in surprise, then his brow furrowed in confusion as his dark eyes met the younger's golden. "I'm going to try something. If it works, we have a free ride."

"Already?" the man asked with a raised brow.

Waving him off, the blond teen removed his Heal Materia from his wrist bracer and slipped Odin's into its place, put the Heal in his pocket, and sought out the arrays which operated Odin which would allow him access to the mount. It didn't take him long, and he lifted his hand forward as he activated those arrays only, then called, "Come to me, Sleipnir!" In a flash of light and with a trumpeting whinny, the white, six-legged horse appeared in front of him, making many pairs of eyes widen.

"There we go!" Eden grinned, springing up onto the horse's back and turning to reach a hand down to Tseng. "Come on."

The Wutain Turk grabbed the hand and swung up behind the blond as he pointed in the direction they needed to go. "That one and the one to the right of it are the ones we need. I'll get off at 6, you keep going."

"Gotcha," Eden agreed as he grabbed the reigns and gave Sleipnir's sides a sharp tap with his heels. The six-legged horse took off as he guided it in the direction they needed to go. Once they'd left the balcony, Ed asked, "Sounds like you had quite a history yourself. Care to share, or is it too personal?"

"No, it's not personal. Not anymore, at least. Well, you already heard the worst of it, anyway..." The man paused for a moment, then sighed and went on, "My family and I were all tortured for three days by the personal guard force of a fellow Lord we thought was a family friend and the Emperor's strongest soldiers, the Crescent Unit. As far as I know, I was the only one to survive to the end of that, and all our servants were killed straight-out, even the babies. I was barely ten, the youngest in my family, and truly had no idea why any of that was happening. When they finished with us, we were all thrown in the ocean...For those who hadn't returned to the Lifestream fully yet, anyway...

"Shortly after being dumped off the cliff, I found someone pulling me from the water—Veld and a few Turks who were around back then. For some reason, they took care of me, healed me, sent me to the Shinra Military Academy—and at sixteen, they took me on as a Turk." For a moment, Tseng paused, then went on, "At first, I was a mess, teetering on the edge of insanity, until I met the same girl I want to take you to meet. She was five, almost six, then...one of Hojo's experimental subjects. I sensed a kindred spirit, but also life and light and hope and a tenacious desire to be happy and live a good life, even if it wasn't the one she should have had. In the year and a half I spent largely in her company before she and her mother escaped, she helped me get my head on straight and I became quite protective of my new sister. That's why I haven't taken her back to Shinra—either she stays safely where she is or she returns willingly to the Company. I won't accept it any other way." (3)

"Does Veld know you know exactly where she is?" Eden asked in faint amusement.

"Yes," Tseng answered with a faint chuckle. "But he pretends not to and never specifically sends anyone to track her down, though you'll find one of the general, on-going missions of the Turks is to find her. Theoretically, that would imply she's fit to join SOLDIER, even though SOLDIER doesn't take women."

"Ah, yes, the so-called 'reason' the Turks exist, to find SOLDIER candidates," the blond chuckled. "Even though they spend blessed little time doing so." He paused for a moment as they neared the Reactor and said, "Sounds like you had a pretty messed-up childhood, too. No wonder you took my past as well as you did."

Drawing his gun as they got a look at the Reactor doors, the man said, "And there's more you haven't said, but that will come in time. The first door's open and they're at the second, so fly over the wall and come in low enough for me to jump."

Eden directed Sleipnir down to the second gate, where the invaders were working on getting the doors open—and Tseng began firing down on them. In the minute it took them to figure out where the bullets were coming from, he'd taken down all but three of them, and took out another one as he jumped from Sleipnir's back to land a few feet from them. As the teen still on the six-legged, flying horse wheeled to head to the next Reactor, he heard the last two gunshots. It didn't take long for him to get well out of range of Reactor 6 and to Reactor 7.

The door there was also already open, so he dove in towards the second door and saw them preparing a bomb as others worked on the panel to get deeper into the Reactor. He directed Sleipnir to dive, which resulted in several of them being trampled as they all tried to figure out what was going on. It was a matter of a few moments to jump off Sleipnir's back, causing the white beast to vanish, and to take out—he was still aiming to kill, otherwise he'd have no way to secure the Reactor—most of the rest. The one with the bomb threw it at him with the clear intent to take them all out, along with the Reactor.

In an attempt to stop the jolt which would set off the bomb, Eden cast Float on it, blinking in mild surprise as a hazy bubble surrounded the bomb, halting it where it was. He then manipulated his Earth Materia to spring-vault the float bubble way up into the air, knowing the bubble would be forced upward to maintain the distance between the ground and the object it was supporting. When it was far above the city, before it could come back down, Ed hit it with a shot of Fire.

A moment later, the whole Plate rocked as the bomb went off, but the damage was only superficial and most of what it produced was an impressive light show.

Of the men left, a few attacked him while the last two bolted. Left with no choice, he fought the immediate threat, then went after the two runners, only to see no trace of them by the time he got out the Reactor's main doors. Panting again from the exertion and having used up the effects of the Ether, Eden quickly checked the corners of the area between the first and second doors, found no one in hiding, and stepped outside the main doors, shutting them behind him and leaning against them.

As he slid tiredly to the ground, he pulled out his PHS, ended the call it was still stuck on, and pulled out his microphone to reattach it so he'd be able to make a call, or receive one. Done with that, he found the number for Lazard and let the phone dial it for him.

When it was answered, the man had a clear frown in his voice as he said, "I don't recognize your number, so who are you?"

"Eden," he answered, and the man let out a deep sigh.

"The blast from Sector 7's Reactor was visible from here, but there was no registered power outage. Why?"

"I managed to get the bomb high enough into the air to keep it from destroying anything. Two of them got away, but Reactor 7 is secure. I'm standing guard at the main doors, as per my instructions," the blond answered.

"Good, that's one less Reactor to worry about," Lazard breathed out in relief. "I'm just waiting for confirmation on Reactor 8 before starting the sweep, and the sweepers are already set with instructions, so just hang tight. We're almost done."

"Thank God..." he groaned softly. "This has been one Hell of a fight."

"Indeed. Rest while you can—I've been told everyone who participated in the defense of the Upper Plate will have to report to the President's office as soon as the city is secure again. At least the Infantry troops are returning from their assignments below the Plate and will be able to patrol and secure it while you're all reporting in to the President."

"True," the teen chuckled. "Later, then." He hung up as the other man did, put his PHS away, and settled in to wait.

It was then, as he sat there waiting for the situation to be brought under control and the adrenaline he had been running on had ebbed, that the full impact of the battle hit him head-on. He had just _killed_ many, many people, more of them than he'd ever actually seen dead at one time before. While he understood the necessity to do so, given how much harm would come to the civilians if he didn't, the act of killing in itself was a burden. There had been other ways to get around things before, and he'd only resorted to killing humans once before—and that indirectly. Father at least hadn't been 'human' by his definition of the term. Though, in a way, he supposed that was rather hypocritical of him...

He found his body trembling as he stared down at the cement between his feet, just feeling numb with shock at the realization of how many people he'd just killed, but he just didn't have the strength left for anything more than that. The numbness was a heavy sort that just added to his exhaustion, making it harder for him to move—not that he was inclined to after what he'd just done. The Planet expected death to happen, and apparently quite a bit of it. The Führer had done the same, but really...he had never been directly exposed to that in anything but the battle in Central. To be shoved into the position of a soldier defending civilians under highly unfavorable conditions was a shock and gave him a new understanding of and respect for Mustang and his crew, even of General Armstrong and her crew. They did this all the time.

For the first time, he wondered if he really knew what he was getting in to by hiring on as a Turk. He was starting to think he didn't. Could he _really_ kill as much as he'd need to here, especially in the position he was now in, where he'd obviously truly find himself in positions where he'd have no other choice? Not to mention, as Veld and other Turks had made clear, he would have to kill people as part of his missions, even if those would be isolated numbers rather than what he was doing now.

Some time later—he wasn't sure how long—Freyra passed by and waved at him as she grinned and called, "We're doing the sweep now, so we're almost done! Good to see you again, Ed!"

Her voice snapped him out of his shock, so he looked up and forced a smile to his face. "Good to see you, too, Freyra! Good luck!" he called back with a wave of his own, and she continued on her way. As soon as she was gone, his face fell again, and the numbness only gained more weight. He sighed at the realization that he'd really have to make himself not think about it or he wouldn't be able to function.

Finally, his phone rang again, and when he looked at it, the number was Sephiroth's, so he answered it and asked tiredly, "Is it all done now?"

"It is. Stay there, though. Two Turks came back from below the Plate to help us clear up, and they are taking the choppers to gather the people guarding the Reactors," Sephiroth informed him.

"Great. I don't think I could walk that far without sleeping, first," the blond chuckled faintly.

"Hence the reason everyone is being picked up. Also, apparently one of the Reactor guards is stuck on the far side of a large hole and cannot return any other way. You will be dropped off on the balcony outside the President's office. Who left all the bodies laying around up here, by the way? No one else I have contacted has been able to tell me."

"That would be Tseng and myself," Eden answered wryly. "And I'm pretty sure some of the bodies are already gone."

The man gave an impressed whistle and said, "Tseng is my next call. Well done, both of you. See you soon."

"Yeah." They both hung up and the teen settled back to wait again.

Finally, a helicopter landed on the street near him, so he pushed himself up and almost limped towards it as the side door opened and a Turk with fire hydrant red hair stood at the door, grinning. He had to smile back a little, and the older Turk, who looked about eighteen, reached out a hand to help him up—a hand he took gratefully. The young man had blue eyes and a red streak (some of it looked like tattoos or scars, but it mostly looked like 'war paint') on each cheek, with flyaway hair even wilder than Cloud's, and shorter, as well (4).

"Call me Reno, Rookie," the red haired Turk said as he pulled the door shut.

"Eden. Nice to meet you," Ed answered as he took a seat—and gave the other occupant across the way a small, tired smile. "How did things go for you, Angeal?" Reno raised a brow, but headed back to the cockpit and took off for the next Reactor.

"At first, they were great—until I realized they were going after the Reactors and that Sephiroth was being overwhelmed by numbers," Angeal answered dryly. "Then Zack almost got himself blown up, and frankly, his luck is as good as yours."

"Zack?" the blond blinked.

"A new Second named Zack Fair," the black haired man explained. "He was one of the three Seconds in the city, and was commanding a small unit of Thirds. He's got skill and potential, but much too short of an attention span."

Eden chuckled. "Yeah, I used to have a short attention span, too—but I had a mind too sharp for it to do any more than put me into hyper-learning mode."

"How do you mean?" Angeal blinked.

"By the time I was four, I was using my skills with the Materia arrays to make children's toys for my younger brother, my best friend, and I."

Angeal gave an impressed whistle, then noted, "Reactor 6."

"Good! Do you know who's at 5?" the teen asked.

"Sorry, no. You know who's at 6?" the older man asked as the chopper touched down.

"Tseng—I'm the one who left him here," Ed answered as Reno came back into the hold to open the door.

"Heya, Tseng!" the red haired Turk grinned as he offered a hand to the older Turk.

"Good to see you, Reno. Thanks for the lift—I don't think I could walk that far myself," Tseng answered, gaze tired and a little amused, taking the hand and letting Reno pull him up. He then immediately dropped down beside Eden with a sigh of relief, then a quick nod at Angeal and Eden. "I was worried about the blast I saw from Reactor 7. What happened, Eden?" Reno closed the door, but stayed there to hear the answer.

"One of them had been prepping a bomb, and he threw it at me. I made it float then sent it flying into the air and blew it up well away from the Plate," the blond said. "'Course, now I'm completely drained again..."

"Nice show, kid!" Reno grinned at the new Turk, then headed back to the cockpit so they could take off and go pick up whoever was at Reactor 5.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tseng let his head rest against the wall behind the seat and said, "I am so glad that's over..."

"But now comes the grinder—I just know one of the things we'll be asked is how they got into the city in the first place, and we have no answer," Angeal answered.

"Better that than any more fighting," Eden answered, leaning his head back as well—and causing Angeal to chuckle as he looked at the two Turks sub-consciously mimicking each other.

Silence fell until they landed at Reactor 5 and picked up a man in the uniform of a SOLDIER Second, but with his helmet on. He sat beside Angeal and asked, "Have you got any word on the other Seconds and Thirds in the city, Commander? I can't contact Second Zack Fair anymore." Reno was already back in the cockpit.

"He's fine. I left him at Reactor 2, and he probably just damaged his PHS in the explosion," Angeal answered. "Your name, Second...?"

"Kunzel Tarins (5). What explosion?" the Second asked in concern.

"Some of the invaders had bombs," Tseng answered, eyes still closed and head back against the wall.

"What about the other Reactors?" Eden asked suddenly. "Who's at them?"

"Kariya, Rude, three Thirds, and Second Zack Fair. I only didn't know 5 and 8 as I didn't assign them," Tseng told him.

From the cockpit, Reno called, "We'll be back in a minute, so gather your strength for the interrogation!" He was laughing while the other four groaned.

 **Notes:**

(1) Tseng is really the odd man out being Wutain but being a very high-ranked Turk, and we know nothing about his actual past. The way I see it, he could have this sort of dramatic past, or he could have some really boring reason for being there, like his family moving to Midgar when he was young, before the war started. Obviously, I took the dramatic route. I've seen some very good alternate versions of both options, though.

(2) This IS doing something, but Ed doesn't figure it out for another...several chapters. Basically, as good as he is, he still shouldn't be able to do this well against so many Wutain Ninjas, so Ama no Murakumo is helping him. However, between this incident and the one where he figures out what it's doing, it doesn't come up, so he doesn't figure it out until then.

(3) Here's my reasoning for his protectiveness of Aeris in Before Crisis and Crisis Core. I never saw Tseng as romantically interested in Aeris, only as having a brotherly interest in her, so my background story for him also explains why he has those feelings. This will also play into other things happening in the story. The only reason Tseng shares so much with Eden at this point is because the teen had already heard the worst of it, so there was no point to him hiding it any further.

(4) As much as I don't like this version of Reno half as much as I like him with long hair and no (well, very small) streaks (tattoos, scars—there are different views of exactly what these are), at this time in the actual timeline, he'd have had this appearance, so I'm using it.

(5) No one ever specified if Kunzel/Kunsel (Kunzel is easier for me to pronounce, and is one of the legitimate translation options for his name) was a family name or a given name, so I've decided to make that his given name...Since he's one of Zack's friends, it's safe to say he'd be using his friend's given name. As such, I completely made up a family name for him, and it almost never gets used, anyway. :P


	43. 43-Case Closed

Case Closed

Everyone who had fought on the Plate to defend Midgar had gathered in the President's office, where enough seats for all the Turks and SOLDIER Firsts, Seconds, and Thirds sat. Lazard and Tseng took the middle seats, with Eden (still feeling a little numb and heavy) beside Tseng and Sephiroth beside Lazard. The last two seats on each end of the row held Genesis and Angeal on Sephiroth's side and Rude and Kariya beside Eden. Freyra, Vant, Quis, and Ruluf sat behind the front row Turks while Zack, Kunzel, the last Second, and one of the Thirds sat behind Lazard and the Firsts. Behind them were three more rows of Thirds, most with helmets on.

Across from them and around the President's desk were the heads of the Departments and the President himself. Right in the middle was President Shinra, a rotund man with blond hair and a blond mustache who wore a burgundy suit. To one side of him was a blond woman with her hair tied up in an almost-bun and a rather revealing crimson dress. On the other side of the President was a large man—both tall and wide—dressed in green military garb with black hair and a bushy beard and mustache. Those were obviously the most prominent of the group.

There were, however, three others on the President's side of the room. Beside the woman was a man in a navy blue suit who was very lightly tanned and had short, dark hair. He also looked like the youngest one at the table, and had a computer tablet with him which he glanced at and manipulated slightly every few moments, even while clearly paying close attention to what was going on around him. At a smaller desk with rocket models on it set to the side of the President's desk was another rotund man, but he was short, balding, and wore a tan suit. The last man, beside the one in green, wore a white lab coat and had long, dark hair in a ponytail and glasses.

"So," the President began, eying the group for a minute. He then went on, "You fought off—what? Terrorists? Invaders? And we didn't know until near the tail end of it. In that, I have to commend your skills as Public Security Maintenance employees. On that same token, I would appreciate an explanation of what happened."

"And where the Hell is Veld, and why are the three of you back when you weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow?" the man in green added sharply, eyes on Tseng and the three Firsts.

"We don't currently know where Veld is or why he left earlier today," Tseng began.

Sephiroth cut him off to say, "Genesis, Angeal, and I had gone to Costa del Sol to meet with the newest addition to the Turks, Eden, and Tseng joined up with us to investigate a case, but he and the other Turks were called back early, so we all decided to return with them. Our early return was also Midgar's saving grace in this case, and we had the Director place us all on active duty now instead of tomorrow."

"As to what happened," Tseng took up where the silver haired man left off. "We had apparently just missed the trouble spots as we made our way up to the Plate, and upon stepping into the lobby here, I was informed that Veld had left and given instructions for me to take over in the interim. The attack had recently begun in Sector 2 and was spreading, while incidences in the Slums had pulled away the Infantry and a few in SOLDIER to act as their commanders. Most of the Seconds and all of the Firsts were either on missions or vacations, and the attackers were an even match for the Thirds in skill, but greater in numbers. Two Turks had been dispatched to Sector 2, leaving only the one who delivered the messages to me. Our saving grace was truly the fact that no one knew we were returning, and with five active Turks and the three most skilled and powerful Firsts."

"And that begs the question of who all the Turks are, as three of them, I don't recognize," the woman threw in sharply. "The one called Eden especially, given the skills we watched him use while defending the office."

Tseng gave a nod and said, "Kariya is actually a Turk on our roster who has been with us for about three years. He rarely comes to Midgar, hence the reason you don't recognize him. Eden had been helping us for about two months before being hired, and Vant has been helping us since he made contact with Eden, which is nearly as long. Circumstances are such that Veld felt it prudent to take them on to more efficiently assist in our investigations. Eden's skills are ones he has been honing for over six years, and is the only Turk with Materia knowledge we can efficiently use. To be perfectly clear on this, Eden is liked and trusted by everyone from Veld, to myself, to Rude and Freyra, to the General and Commanders." Everyone who had just been named gave emphatic nods of agreement.

"How do you know he's so trustworthy?" the scientist in the lab coat asked in a slimy-sounding voice.

"He gave me an Ultima Materia," Sephiroth said in a dry tone. Many pairs of eyes widened, from most of the Thirds and Seconds to the company leadership. "Without it, I would have been overwhelmed in Sector 3."

"He gave me Neo Bahamut, so I gave him Ifrit. Then, later, he gave me Phoenix, too," Genesis said dryly. "Phoenix proved very useful while holding off the enemy on the ground floor here. That's on top of saving my life and the lives of a lot of other people multiple times." Eyes widened more, but everyone facing the President's table saw how the man in the navy suit looked faintly amused, even while clearly surprised.

"I traveled with him," Rude forced out. "I trust him with my life. And with all of yours." His uncharacteristic number of words made several others in the room stare at him in amazement, even some of the ones on the President's side of the room.

"He took out the bandit outside Junon, Hell Rider," Freyra added. "And only took the reward money as an afterthought."

"I think we can say we've heard enough," the younger man in the navy suit said in a dry tone while the other department heads were clearly too stunned to speak. "What about the attack on the city? What was it, why did it happen, why now?"

"That is—the difficult part," Tseng began.

Genesis cut him off as he said, "It was a combined attack. Neither group involved would have done it alone, but together, they were willing to risk it, each for their own goals. One group were the eco-terrorists called AVALANCHE, the other were Wutain military forces. They chose now because so many of the city's defenders were away and arranged for the incidences in the Slums to draw what was left of the defenses away. They had multiple targets—each of the Reactors, and Shinra Headquarters. It wasn't as simple as the eco-terrorists after the Reactors or the Wutains after Headquarters, as both forces were after both targets."

"And how, pray tell, do you know that?" the scientist asked with a raised brow.

"The leaders of the eco-terrorists came here to assault the ground floor while Wutain troops climbed the building wall as well as the Wutains being amongst the forces after the Reactors," Tseng said. "In addition, even after the terrorists ran, the Wutain military forces continued the attack on Headquarters, and we found them continuing the attacks on the Reactors as well, hence the reason Eden and I had to leave to secure the Reactors earlier. Genesis and Vant faced AVALANCHE's leaders on the ground floor, and there was what happened at each Reactor."

"Some of the Reactors were secured early on and attacked again during the progression of the battle," Lazard added, speaking for the first time. "Leaving people to secure them had turned out to be the best move, despite the strain doing so put on the combatants attempting to force them out of the city and who later had to perform the final sweep to be sure we'd gotten them all."

"And how did they get into the city in such numbers to launch such an attack?" the President asked sharply. "Tseng..." The warning in his voice made it clear he thought the Wutain man somehow responsible for the situation, causing several people to bristle in his defense.

"We will be beginning an investigation into that first thing tomorrow morning, once we've all rested," Tseng replied evenly before anyone could say a word. "Currently, we have a vague suspicion that about half of them may have already been in the city—that would be AVALANCHE—and helped the others enter over several weeks, but we have nothing more concrete than that without a full-scale investigation."

"Fine, now, getting back to what we witnessed on the rooftop," the woman said, gaze going to Eden. "Eden of the Turks, where did that six-legged horse come from?" She shot Genesis a glare as he began snickering, then returned her gaze to the blond teen.

Eden blinked twice at her, then said, "Some Summoned beings are more than one 'entity'. Odin is both the man and the horse he rides, called Sleipnir. Since I didn't need the man, but needed his flight-capable mount, I called for the mount independently of Odin. Anyone holding his Materia shard could do the same, assuming they're aware they can. There's nothing at all mysterious, or even impressive, about it."

"How did you become aware you could do such a thing?" she asked sharply. "You clearly hadn't been aware of it before right then."

"He can see the arrays as well," Genesis threw in, which made several pairs of eyes blink, then brows to raise, and finally, understanding came to everyone in the room, but the woman was still looking at Eden.

"I had never seriously 'looked' at Odin's arrays before because I'd never needed to—the only time I used him was once in battle against a powerful monster," Eden answered. "But when your boss in the Turks tells you to figure out a way to fly, well—you do it. So, I started looking and realized there was more than one 'entity' array which weren't actually directly linked to one another, only indirectly linked. Because they were indirectly linked, the mount could be Summoned without Odin, though I don't think it can happen the other way—calling Odin will always call Sleipnir as well."

"Oh, how odd. You actually made sense to someone who knows nothing about Materia!" the man in the tan suit commented curiously.

Genesis and the scientist at the President's table both snorted as the blond teen raised a brow and said, "If I'm talking with Genesis, he's probably the only one who will understand me. In the meantime, what's the point in explaining something in technical terms to people who won't understand the technical terms? You're all 'laymen' when it comes to Materia, so I just adapt the way I explain things so a 'layman' will understand. It saves me time and all of us frustration."

"How thoughtful," the woman sneered. "I hope you don't do that with people you're talking with about your missions."

"If he does, it's to the people who actually need to know the information, not to the uninformed who don't need to," Tseng answered that time.

"Fine. No more Turks for awhile. This makes six in the last four months," Heidegger announced.

"We're not planning on taking any more any time soon, and Eden and Vant have skipped the Trainee phase and are Rookies at the very least—we need Veld to confirm their rank," the Wutain Turk answered. "We've seen enough of their abilities to know they don't need training, as they already know what they're doing."

"And that's not suspicious?" the scientist asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"If we based hiring our Turks and SOLDIERs on 'suspicious knowledge' or other such similar things, we wouldn't have any," Lazard put in, his tone dry. "I've never found a member of either unit to be completely normal, even before SOLDIER enhancements, and many come out of backgrounds which are, by nature, 'suspicious'. Rather than deterring us, it intrigues us and gives us a new skill to hone and take maximum advantage of. Also, for a Turk to skip the Trainee phase means more productivity much sooner, which is a boon for the Company, not an expense. Eden and Vant are two employees you're not first losing money on. Why question a gift horse?"

"Isn't there some sort of story about a gift horse statue being taken inside a city, but the enemy soldiers were hidden in it?" the man in the tan suit asked in puzzlement.

"If that's the case, you're accusing Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal, and all of the Turks of being those hidden soldiers," the blond Director replied, brow raised.

A long silence fell after those words, then the man in the navy suit said, "I think I've heard everything I need and want to hear. I've also recorded the entire discussion, so we can reference it again later if need be. The only thing I would ask is that you send Veld to us as soon as he gets back so we can find out why he left in the first place. Unless there are further questions from anyone here?"

"No, no!" the man in the tan suit said.

"I believe we've established the important points, and Heidegger will be able to forward to you assignments to Wutai to resolve this situation," the President said. "It was a rather impressive show you boys gave us, and you've earned a day or two of rest before further deployment, save a couple of you. We're done here, then."

"There is one thing I'd like to say," Angeal said suddenly, making all eyes go to him. "Mister Heidegger, list Second Zack Fair as my new protegee and take his presence into account for any missions you send me on."

"Really? Awesome! Thanks a bunch, Commander!" the black haired sixteen-year-old grinned, fidgeting excitedly.

"Hmph! Fine. Get out of here, all of you," the man in the green suit said, waving them away.

They all began rising and heading for the exit, most of them dragging their feet in exhaustion—though Zack easily made up for their lack of energy by bouncing through the group several times on the walk back to the Turks' and SOLDIERs' floors. His behavior irritated some and amused others—but on the third time he looped around Eden, the other sixteen-year-old smacked him in the head with a hard, sharp jab which sent him sprawling on the floor in the middle of the hall. He blinked up at the ceiling a few times in stunned confusion before he saw a hand held out to him.

Since the hand was Angeal's, he took it and let the amused man pull him up, then fell in with the man as he asked, "What was _that_ all about?"

"Eden and Tseng are so exhausted right now that a breeze could blow them over. I think you just hit Eden's last nerve, and he's short-tempered to start with. They've held up remarkably well, but you can tell if you _pay attention_ that they just can't deal with you being your usual puppy-like self, Zack," Angeal explained. "If they weren't so tired, I think Eden would give you a run for your money, energy-wise."

"How did he get so tired?"

"He climbed the outside of the Shinra building from the first floor to the seventieth, and fought the enemy all the way up, then had another battle at the top," Genesis filled in, joining them. "I saw the mess Eden and Tseng left behind—what they took on alone was easily a match for what Sephiroth did in town, which was over seventy enemies all coming at once. And unlike Sephiroth, they had people—other people—to protect, because they were the last line of defense between the Shinra administrators—and everyone else in the building—and the attackers. On top of that, Sephiroth had several others to help him and backup on the way while Tseng and Eden had no one, so they were literally in a 'do-or-die' situation."

"Ooooh," Zack murmured, gaze impressed. "No wonder he could flatten me in one hit, even when he's so tired."

"It gets worse," Freyra said from a few steps ahead of the three as she looked back at them. "Tseng is the acting head of the Turks until Veld gets back, so he can't rest, and until Eden and Vant meet with Veld, neither of _them_ can rest, either."

"Oh, ouch," the black haired teen winced slightly. "Maybe I should have just stayed at Headquarters so I could have helped out here and used up extra energy—because I haven't used nearly enough yet."

"How's your shoulder, by the way?" Angeal asked his new protegee, tapping the one he knew was injured.

Zack winced, but said, "It hurts, but my Cure spell fixed the worst of it and it's only bruised. By morning, the bruise should even be gone. I guess the pole that held me against the Reactor door fractured the bone, so the most I could do was fix the fracture."

"Makes sense," Genesis agreed. "Especially if your Restore is still only first level."

"Yeah, it is. I think it's fairly close to second, though," the black haired teen nodded.

"Okay, if you have so much excess energy, take a bunch of it and start pushing it into your Materia deliberately," the red haired man instructed.

"Why?" the boy blinked.

"You'll Master them much faster that way," Angeal filled in before his friend could say more. "The more energy you push into them, the sooner they'll be truly useful to you, and the more you'll be able to do. Your one short-coming in that is your lack of focus, so just maybe expending your energy by pushing it into Materia shards to Master them will use up a lot of that excess energy and help increase your focus. No matter what, you win."

"Ooooh..." Zack looked thoughtfully down at the Materia on his bracer, a Silver Armlet, which had a linked pair of slots and two independent ones. "Okay, I'll give it a try and see how things go. Thanks! You guys can all have a rest and I'll—should I go to your office tomorrow morning, Commander Hewley?"

"Actually, before you do that, you could go back to the lobby when the Turks remove the lockdown and grab our bags—they should all have names on them—and drop them off at the appropriate office to be collected in the morning. As for morning, eight o'clock. If I'm not there, try my apartment. And call me Angeal. I'm becoming your mentor, after all, not a commanding officer," the black haired man told him with a small smile.

"Okay, will do! Thanks, Com—Angeal!" the boy grinned, then ran ahead of everyone and down the stairs. Genesis, Angeal, and Freyra just shook their heads in amused amazement.

"Well, now he'll have to wait for the lockdown release by himself," Freyra chuckled.

"Are you sure he's worth taking on?" Genesis asked his best friend dryly.

"He's got a surprisingly good head on his shoulders, attention span of a puppy or not. What he needs to balance his skill and mind is focus. No one other than me would have the patience to teach him that, because honestly—it'll take awhile," Angeal admitted. "I think he can make it, but only if he can gain that focus, energy aside."

"Go for it, then," Genesis grinned.

Not long after, the group parted ways, most of them to rest, but four Turks chose other paths. One headed downstairs as he called, "I'll release the lockdown, let everyone know they can leave or get back to business, and make sure the kids are signed in!" That was Kariya, which caused amusement from several people as they realized Anthony was going to get the general Turks' mark the Academy used from a Turk who had no personal relation to him at all—which was all to the good.

The other three Turks headed to the Turks' offices. Tseng led Eden and Vant first to his office and into the command center so all three could retrieve their bags, then to Veld's office, where he let them all inside and sat in the seat Veld usually used. Eden collapsed into one of the chairs across the desk from him and Vant, who was in somewhat better shape than them (of course, he was undead), began examining the books on the shelves across one wall of the office.

"Sorry about this, Eden, but until Veld comes back—" the Wutain began.

"We're stuck waiting here," the blond finished, eyes closed as he leaned his head back against the chair back. "I know. It's fine. Wouldn't be the first time."

Leaning back against his own claimed seat, the man sighed and shook his head. "I wish I could leave, myself, you know." His eyes opened and went to the PHS sitting on the desk—which had a flashing light on it, making him blink, reach over, and pick it up to check the message it had. After a silence, he gave a heart-felt sigh and said, "Here," as he passed it to Eden.

Eden read the text message out loud, " _'Sorry about dropping leadership on you, Tseng, but we've come across an emergency. I should be back by six this evening, so I leave you in command until then.'_ " The teen paused and looked at the time—then sighed and asked plaintively, "Three _hours_?"

"You could always read. It looks like most of Veld's books and papers are on Company regulation, which you need to know as a Turk," Vincent said dryly, pulling a couple off the shelf in front of him and walking over to Eden to hand them to the teen—who groaned, but took them.

"Fine, fine," the sixteen-year-old sighed as he opened the first and started reading tiredly, even as both Tseng and Vant smiled.

"How have you been holding up, Vant?" the Wutain asked.

"Fine," he said. "I felt very little strain from battle, though I must have 'felt' some as I began slowing down marginally towards the end. Also, it looks like Hojo didn't look twice at me."

"Good. That means it worked and Mirage held, even with how tired I got," Eden commented. "Which means it held for Anthony, too. In the President's office, who was who, from right to left facing them?"

"The one at the model desk was Palmer," Tseng said. "Beside him was Reeve, then Scarlet, the President, Heidegger, and Hojo."

"That woman is probably the creepiest one I've met, and I've met some pretty creepy women," the blond sighed. "Reeve's behavior makes a lot more sense now, though. I mean, since he's in on all our plans to some degree, anyway."

Tseng chuckled, then they all fell silent. Eden kept reading the books he'd been handed, and after awhile, Vant also chose one, while Tseng monitored the various phones in the office. A call came in and he gave some quick instructions to the Turk on the other end, but otherwise, the only event of note was how the Wutain man saw Eden apparently regaining some of his energy while he read, becoming more alert and intent.

Finally, the door was shoved open unceremoniously, making all of them look at it, to see an emotionless, brown haired man with a couple scars on his face standing there. His gaze traveled the room, where he saw Tseng and Eden—then stopped on Vant. He let the door close behind him as his expressionless face began showing faint shock and hope.

"Vincent?" he asked of the black haired man.

Vant returned his gaze and said evenly, "Verdot."

The two younger Turks pretended not to see the men share a hug.


	44. 44-Re-Rank

**A/N:** Every Turk is mentioned by code name in this chapter, so I've put up an insert: List of Current Turks V1 (it follows immediately after this chapter). Some people may want to check this out if they don't know the Turks' official event names. **Please leave me a review if you'd like me to list the non-main Turks present in chapters where a lot of them are participating, or I'll assume everyone's fine just referencing this list!**

 **The date of the Wutain Invasion (the date at the start of this chapter) is October 5th, 0000.**

Re-Rank

Veld sat at his desk and looked at Tseng, Eden, and Vant for several long minutes after they described some of their activities before arriving in the city and the attack on Midgar in his absence, then asked, "And this attack began shortly after I left?"

"About two hours later, by my estimate," Tseng said. "The Department Heads will expect you to report to them on the reason you left. Should I ask why you did, or ignore the situation?"

"I suspect it wasn't one of our people who sent me the message, but it was a real enough emergency. Or would have been had it been reported a month ago, or thereabouts," Veld replied. "It would explain why no one met me when I went to Nibelheim, only to find Shinra Manor destroyed. If anything could have been salvaged, the monsters and villagers already destroyed it. Oddly enough, the Reactor itself was unharmed, but the research lab Hojo used it as was completely destroyed. Upon asking the villagers what had happened, they said it mysteriously burnt down about a month prior, with absolutely no witnesses or leads."

"...Shinra Manor burnt down..." Tseng repeated, lips twitching in amusement, and noted a similar expression on Eden's and Vant's faces.

"I shouldn't have to tell you we must look—discretely—for the one or ones who did the act. However, Hojo will be furious to find out his pet project is completely gone and he has to start all over. It would have been nice to have kept it from him until the next scheduled drop-off of data in the lab and library there, as he will be a holy terror when he hears about the loss, and we—any and everyone in the Public Safety Department—will have to simply bear his ire _without saying a word_."

"Understood," the other three said, knowing exactly what he meant—which also meant he knew exactly who had burnt down the Manor and wasn't willing to sacrifice his Turks to Hojo despite that fact.

"Now, as for Eden and Vant, I've had time to consider where to place you in our rank system. Obviously, the higher your rank, the more privileges you have. Trainee was out from the start, but I would be doing you a disservice to start you at Rookie as well. After hearing about the situation in the city and a notice I was sent earlier, however, any Turks who participated in it will be promoted three ranks from their current rank. You two become Leaders. Tseng has been waiting for a long time to be promoted to Omega, the highest rank we have—though I'm debating renaming that rank after what I've heard from you."

"No offense, but you should probably rename a number of those ranks, because the whole list feels tacked together, especially the ones after Legend," Eden commented dryly—his previous reading had included the rank names and order.

Veld actually raised a brow, even as Vant sighed tiredly and Tseng fought a smile. The man then offered, "Fine, come back first thing tomorrow morning and you can look through all the paperwork involved in renaming a single rank. If you feel it's worth renaming them, you can do all the paperwork for every change you want to make and give them names you feel would be more suitable, assuming they're acceptable by Shinra code. I need you here later tomorrow anyway, and that will give you something to do in the meantime."

Eden was blinking rapidly, Vant was staring in surprise, and Tseng had begun chuckling. After a moment, the blond teen gave a small, bemused smile and said, "Sure, I'll have a look and see what I can do. But what do I need to be here for?"

"A new assignment around the work you'll be doing for Tseng. Unfortunately, I'm not expecting to be able to assign you to it until quite a bit later in the day," Veld said.

"Oh, okay," Eden agreed readily. "What privileges do Leaders have which are different from the ones before?"

"Authority over the Infantry troops (1)," Veld answered. "You can override their orders on the battlefield unless they've been given missions under a specific code. They'll tell you they're operating under Code Indigo if they have an order you can't change...Which doesn't always stop them from asking for new orders from you if the situation has changed enough, though in that case, they're taken to task for their actions, not you for giving new orders."

"I see. Since Heidegger mentioned it, how will the four other new Turks take being left without promotions?" the blond asked with a raised brow.

"Three of the four were participating in the defense of the city, as those were Ruluf, Freyra, and Quis, so will also be promoted three ranks. In fact, Quis will be the same rank as the two of you. The last was recently promoted to Member for exemplary work, and while he may feel somewhat put out, I doubt Alvis will take it badly enough to be problematic," Veld answered, then pulled out two wallets and tossed them to Eden and Vant.

The two caught them easily, so he said, "Put any money and other items of monetary value you have on you in those and return them to me. All Shinra employees have a bank account here where your pay from Shinra will be deposited automatically. You'll be given two cards in a day or two, one with your employee ID and one the bank card every shop in Shinra territory takes. Circumstance may dictate you'll have to take cash out, or that you want to do so—we just need to establish the base account with your current funds."

"How much do you have, Vant?" Eden asked curiously as he flipped open the wallet and pulled out his gil to put in it.

"You had no idea how much gil was in my former home, did you?" Vant asked in a mildly amused voice, doing the same as the teen. "When you made your decision that day, I tracked it all down and—brought it with me. I have about three hundred thousand on me, which is quite a bit more than you have, even with all your luck."

Eden whistled, but Tseng said, "I do believe Ama no Murakumo more than covers the difference, but that's a weapon Eden actively uses, so it won't be going in the bank."

"Definitely not!" Ed agreed with a wry smile as he stuffed the bills and coins into the wallet and passed it back to Veld. Vant did the same, only his wallet was so full he couldn't fold it closed, which caused a few raised brows.

"Now, there's a few sheets of paperwork you have to sign, then you'll be free to go rest. In the morning, you'll have to stay in your rooms until another Turk comes to get you because you don't have your ID cards yet—you'll need them to travel the building. Vant, you can take the day off because of the need to see to personal business, and you can do the same, Tseng. It's only Eden I need here thanks to the issue I need resolved tomorrow," Veld said, pulling out the papers he needed the two to sign.

While they quickly read the documents—which were oddly short and to the point for a business contract, and which mostly dealt with secrecy issues—Veld told the Wutain man, "Drop Eden off at room fifty-eight-oh-six." Tseng's brow rose, but he nodded, so the man added, "And Vant, stay here for a bit. I'll drop you off at your room later."

"Of course," the black haired man agreed as both he and the blond teen finished what they were doing.

With that, Eden and Tseng headed out while Vant stayed with Veld to get caught up after so many years apart.

CA

That night, Eden slept like a log and was woken by something poking his shoulder and the sound of a woman chuckling. "Get up, Ed, or you'll be late for your meeting with Veld!" a familiar voice teased him.

Cracking an eye open, he saw Freyra at his bedside, grinning widely. "It can't be morning already..." he muttered tiredly. At least he wasn't numb anymore, but he still didn't feel the greatest after the events the day before—and it occurred to him to wonder if it was normal for things to feel so much less painful so quickly. He didn't think it was, but he really had nothing to compare it to, as that had been his first time killing. (2) And with Deepground...there was a good chance it would happen at least once more, something he really wasn't looking forward to.

"But it is. And it's almost eight, the start of our workday," she answered, chuckling again. "It was hard for me to wake up this morning, too, but really! You usually have more energy than this!" (3)

Groaning, the teen rolled over, gave a huff, and slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position. "I have a couple questions for you since you're here, Freyra," he told her as she turned to go, so she looked back at him curiously. "First, apparently you're a pretty new addition to the Turks, so what can you tell me about who's who in, like, the length of time they've been here and how much power they have?"

She gave a wry grin at the question and told him, "Other than Tseng and Veld, none of the others actually have 'power', the newer ones just tend to take the advice of the old hands. Veld has been in the Turks for over twenty years, and Rude has been here for over ten, but he never had any aspirations to command. Um...Balto joined nearly four years ago and in the same year as Tseng, who joined later, a little more than three years ago. Several of the Turks' old hands died not long after those two joined, mostly thanks to the Death God of the Battlefield, then Kariya joined us a few months after Tseng did.

"Reno joined early on about two years ago, then Maur and Judet later that year. Cissnei joined last year when her lessons ended, the youngest ever to join the Turks at fourteen. Illis joined in January this year, Emma joined in March when she graduated from the Military Academy, and Ruluf and I both joined in early June—I was only a Rookie when I met you, and Alvis was tagging along because he was a new Trainee who had just joined five days earlier, on the fourth of July. Rude was mentoring us then. Quis joined in August, then you and Vant in September. (4) I guess that covers everyone. So, what's your other question?"

Eden blinked at all the new information, then nodded and asked, "How—stuck on—the rank system in the Turks are all of you?"

"You mean the value we place in the ranks?" she blinked, and he nodded. "Well, at first, I thought they were pretty important, just like Ruluf, Alvis, and Quis did, but it just stops mattering after awhile. I think even Quis is starting to wonder what the point is when he really only joined because he likes our uniform (5). They don't affect that much about how we operate, and the only really important rank is Omega, where we're allowed to have Shinra pay for custom-made gear and have full access to everything in the company. Well, except Deepground, apparently. Why?"

"You have useless ranks. I was just wondering why when the Turks are a very small, elitist unit, and your rank doesn't determine the degree of power you have within the Turks, only outside it. I mean, just because your rank is higher than Quis', it doesn't mean you can give him orders—as far as I can tell, only Veld and Tseng can do that, and in Tseng's case, it's not because of his rank, it's because he's Veld's unspoken second in command."

"That's true. And actually, all the ranks get annoying when trying to make it to Omega. Either that was done to slow down our progress to that rank, or Heidegger did it because he stupidly thought we were going to be anything like the Infantry or even SOLDIER, who both have more use for ranks than we do, given their numbers and how those ranks influence the chain of command. All I know is that it's been like this forever, and it wasn't any of our department leaders who created it."

"Huh. That's food for thought. Thanks," the blond teen answered as he gave her a grin. "I'd better get ready now, though."

As Freyra was leaving the room, she commented, "There should be spares of your uniform in the closet and some basic undergarments in the drawers."

The door shut behind her, so Ed checked the two named places to see that there were indeed some uniforms and spare boxers and socks. He wondered if he should be worried they were the right size, then snorted as he remembered some of the things Hughes had known about him and Al—information people really knew a lot of details others didn't pay attention to. Could he ever notice details like _that_ about people from meeting them once or twice?

It didn't take him long to finish his morning ablutions, oddly grateful for the fact that Turks apparently had apartments which were quite large with a full bathroom attached to the bedroom. The day before, he hadn't taken much time to look around his place, and he wasn't going to have the time that morning, either, but recalled seeing a fair-sized main room with furnishings (two couches, two chairs, and a coffee table), a kitchen (it was too big to be a kitchenette) combined with a dining room, also furnished (a plain, round, gray table and three chairs). Off to one side, beside about where his personal bathroom would be, he saw a small room which looked like it was just a toilet and sink for guests. Freyra, who had been in the main room waiting for him, led him out before he could look around any more, so he made a mental note to do so later.

"When do I get to eat?" he asked as they headed down to Veld's office.

"He should have food there. If not, I'll get some," she answered with a grin.

"Nice," the teen answered with a small grin. "Thanks."

"Oh, when you and Vant have your ID's, Veld will—try to—call us all together to greet you so we all know who our new—and old—members are. Well, assuming there's time based on the circumstances," she added. "Just to warn you."

"Makes sense," Eden shrugged.

Soon after, Freyra let the blond into Veld's office before going back to her own duties, and the older man pointed the teen to a table and chair at the back of the room where books and papers were already stacked. There was also a tray of food sitting on the table.

Veld told him, "You can go through the paperwork, and if you still think you can come up with something reasonable, be my guest."

"Thanks for the food!" the teen grinned over his shoulder as he moved over to the table and sat. He then stopped for a moment as a flash of all the dead bodies on top of the Shinra Building came to him. That had been an invasion...

Turning to look at Veld, he asked, "Before I start, do you have an estimate of the death toll from yesterday?"

"Enemy, ally, or civilian?" the man asked in reply.

Bile rose in the blond's throat as he realized there would be no need to add the last unless unarmed civilians _had_ died in the invasion. "All of them," Eden answered softly.

Veld turned to his computer to check something as he said, "As far as enemy forces go, only about twenty percent of the terrorists died before they withdrew, and some of the Wutains left with them. Of those who remained, about five percent escaped, and five percent were captured alive. Our forces present in the attack only suffered about ten percent losses—mainly because most of them were highly skilled. Of civilians, the terrorists bypassed any who left them to their own devices and only killed those who actively attacked them, while the Wutains killed any man, woman, and child they came across—with only one noted exception so far, where a Wutain left three children alone. In the Sectors heaviest hit, we easily lost half our civilian population, and most of the company is running on bare minimums from that death toll. The total civilian death toll on the Upper Plate is about thirty-five percent, and around twenty-five on the Lower. I won't give you specific numbers, especially not when the count is still rising."

"...And what was Midgar's total population before the invasion?"

"Approximately thirty million, one third on the Upper Plate and two on the Lower."

"...How many of the Wutain troops—the total including the ones still in Wutai—did we defeat?" the teen asked with a wary tone in his voice. At least knowing the civilian death toll eased most of his guilt about having killed the invaders, even if it didn't make it go away entirely.

"At most, maybe between five or ten percent. Closer to five, I believe," the man told him. "The very fact that the Wutains didn't follow the terrorists' lead in ignoring civilians made me think the Emperor may not have known they came here, as he isn't fond of killing unarmed civilians. As such, I had them questioned with that in mind—they admitted they had come on their own initiative, every one of them, regardless of questioning method."

"...They were AWOL?" When Veld met his gaze evenly with a nod, Eden asked, "So how would that have changed what happened here if they'd won?"

"Death would have been merciful if that had been the case. It's likely their leader here would have taken over and the land not been turned over to Wutai's Emperor."

"And by the way they treated the civilians, and what they did to Tseng...You're probably right," Eden sighed, then gave a small smile when he saw Veld's brow rise. "They asked Tseng why he was fighting against his own people. He—said that was an interesting way to describe the people who had killed his family, tortured him, and threw him in the ocean to drown." When Veld nodded, the blond turned back to the meal.

It was a pretty basic breakfast meal, so he just ate quickly, then pulled over the books and papers to search through them, stacking them in the order he needed them to be in. From there, he began the process of actually reading through the whole set, glad it wasn't very 'heavy' reading and wasn't even printed all that small or close together. Blank spaces filled the books and sheets with the actual data, both on the timing and privileges of the Turks, of the processes, and of the paperwork to assign ranks, to change the existing ranks, and a thousand other things that made him raise his brows. And the work successfully took his mind off the invasion.

After awhile of researching the data, he frowned and got up to track down the books he'd been reading the day before. Veld watched him silently as he found the ones he wanted and went back to the desk to re-read some parts, one of which he dropped onto the table again, open to a specific page. He rose as he flipped a few other pages from one of his previous books as well, his intent frown deepening.

Turning around, he saw Veld watching, so pointed at the shelves and asked, "Where will I find the C-Code rules?"

Veld raised a brow, but rose and moved over to the shelf where the code book rules were. Pulling down the one Eden had asked for, he offered it to the teen, who took it with a grin and thanks. As the boy returned to the desk, the man asked, "What do you need that for?"

"Just checking something. I may do more than change rank names if this turns out the way I think it will," the blond answered absently.

"...Should I remind you to eat?" Veld asked blandly.

Eden waved him off and said, "Bring something along and pull the book out of my hands long enough for me to acknowledge the food. That's what Vant did to me for a month while I was researching."

Several minutes later, Veld did exactly that, at first producing an indignant look, then a wry laugh—he _had_ told the man to do that, after all. With a quick thanks, he ate as he kept reading, then pushed the tray aside and continued as though he'd never been interrupted. Reading the code book clarified things for him, and also gave him the name of the document binder where he'd find the document he actually needed. Getting up again, he quickly found the correct binder, and the correct document in the binder, then returned to his seat to begin writing. The document was several pages long and made him detail every change he was making and why he was making it, but it was a lot easier than the paperwork to rename ranks.

Finally, when he finished, he held the completed document out to Veld and said, "Forget renaming ranks, we're just going to streamline the whole system. You've got _six_ useless ranks, and to be honest, the Turks don't need to have so many because only the new recruits care about them. We're a small, closely-knit group who only have one person in our command chain—our leader—so rank isn't important for anything but privilege or kudos, and we don't particularly care about the latter. Also, if Turks—spies—need that kind of ego-boosting, what the Hell are they doing here? Rather than having six ranks more than needed, it would be more practical to have fewer ranks with clear benefits to reaching each, which become progressively harder to reach so it'll still take approximately the same amount of time to reach the top rank as it does now. Also, putting all that down on paper was way less work than changing the names of several ranks independently, since I'd have had to change more than half of them, anyway."

Veld blinked, then blinked again and scanned the list on the first page. Trainee was no longer listed as a 'rank', but as a pre-rank which had to be completed successfully to proceed to the proper ranks, of which there were now ten. It was in the pre-rank level where their basic new living situation was established, but they gained no privileges in that sense. The ranks started with Rookie, progressed to Silver, Expert, Ace, Gold, Master, Leader, Platinum, Grand Master, and finished with Legend, and each had a clearly-defined privilege and timeframe to be that rank. He had even noted the right of the Turk's leader or the Department Head to promote Turks outside the standard system for exemplary work or extenuating circumstances. (6)

What impressed Veld the most was the paperwork justifying the change to the whole system, and Eden had even re-ranked everyone based on the new system. The three-rank promotion had become a two-rank promotion, which superficially looked much better as it evened out the other promotions to be only one rank apart, and only people on those upper ranks would be adjusted to fall in the rank corresponding with their current level of privileges, other than the ranks Ace and below, where some of the privileges would belong to the rank above the one it previously had been.

As he was lowering the papers to give Eden his acceptance of the changes, the door opened and Freyra and Rude led in (or dragged in by the arms) a scowling, blond young man dressed in white dress pants, a white suit jacket much like a full-length coat, and a black shirt. His bangs fell over his forehead (7), his eyes were blue, and he had a cold demeanor. Clearly, the eighteen-year-old wasn't happy to be there, but the two Turks dragging him along proved to be too strong for him, so he settled for sparing some of his dignity and walking.

"Why have you brought me here, Veld?" the young man asked with a deep glare at the man.

First, Veld ignored him, turning his attention back to Eden as he said, "I'll accept this and send it along to the appropriate office. Whether it will be accepted there, well...We'll see." He then put it in one of his drawers and turned his attention to the short haired blond in white. "Rufus Shinra, meet Eden, one of our newest—and most skilled—operatives. Based on orders your father sent me before I returned here yesterday evening, Eden will be acting as your new guard unless he is specifically needed for an operation or mission."

"You can't just allocate a new guard to me, especially one unproven!" the President's son retorted with a glare.

"Your father witnessed Eden's skill for himself, hence his decision to place Eden in charge of you. As he put it, maybe I've found someone who can keep you out of trouble, or who will slap some sense into you if he can't," Veld answered. "Also, between us, Eden isn't likely to stop you from a lot of your antics after the kinds of—stunts he's pulled, himself. He'll just re-write your entire perception of the world and make sure you know what you're doing, what you're risking, and what your actual goal is—along with a way to actually accomplish said goal. According to President Shinra, he also has the right and authority to punish you, including dragging you over his knee for a spanking if he feels you need it. You're welcome to call him and verify that fact."

Rather than the outburst a very bemused Eden had been expecting, the older teen pressed his lips into a fine, white line for a minute before saying, "None of you would dare do such a thing to me—not after all the time I've spent with you."

"Eden—dares—to do or contradict anything he feels like doing or contradicting," Veld replied blandly. "And doesn't even feel put out by the extra work doing so causes him. In fact, he seems to greatly enjoy the challenge. As such—you are his challenge, and his problem to fix."

"Veld, you can only fix _people_ when they _want_ to be fixed," the blond Turk said dryly.

"Yes. And you just showed me you're rather an expert at fixing broken things after what you just did in six hours," the man answered, still completely bland. It wasn't even monotone, just—as though it was all completely irrelevant to him. "I feel you have the best chance of doing what we need done. How you go about it is entirely your choice. As long as Rufus is alive and whole at the end of it, even his own father will turn a blind eye to your methods."

"Aha," Eden smirked. "Of course, that idiot never thought his own behavior is the reason for his son's, so now we have to fix it for him. Why are all these people who clearly aren't fit to have children even allowed to have them?"

Rufus stared first at Eden at the words, then at Freyra and Rude as the woman laughed and the man hid his amusement behind his hand. His gaze then went back to Eden as he asked, "Why are you even allowed to work for Shinra with an attitude like that?"

"Because the only people who know I have it don't actually care as long as I behave in the company of the President and Department Heads, and I have perfectly selfish reasons for being here," the younger blond answered, meeting the older's gaze evenly. "Reasons which trump my dislike of most of the administration here."

The President's son turned to look at Veld again and said, "No."

"No?" Veld asked in reply, not entirely sure what he was denying.

"I'm not going to have someone like him in my company," the short haired blond clarified. "He's not even sane."

"More sane than you," the head of the Turks replied. "And you have no choice. The decision is already made. Tseng will find him when he needs him for anything, so you're both free to go. I suggest you test for yourself just how likely you are to escape from Eden's guardianship before you assume he won't be capable."

"That's not the point!" Rufus glared hotly.

Before Veld could answer, Eden threw in, "The point is that you don't want a guard, especially one who can keep up with you, because you're feeding one enemy or another information on Midgar's and Shinra's security, or you're doing something _else_ you know is against the law or against Shinra." The others all faced him in shock (except Veld, who just had on brow cocked slightly) as he met the older teen's now concerned gaze. "And Rufus, _I. Don't. Care._ You're welcome to do whatever you like—as long as you know the whole story so you don't screw up so badly you destroy the world and not just your father or his company. If you've actually taken the time to figure that out and can give me truly logical reasons to take those actions, I'll even help you take them—but I _won't_ just let you get us all killed over a grudge. Am I clear on that?"

"...Crystal," Rufus agreed, his gaze showing uncertainty and respect.

 **Notes:**

(1) I just made this up, added it to the list of what Leader-rank Turks get to do. I figured it would make some of the things I've seen in all the FFVII games make more sense if Turks above a certain rank actually had command power over the Infantry. Also, I could actually see him asking this with how he's changed.

(2) So people are aware of this, part of his 'quick' recovery is from Minerva helping to make it less 'recent' and less painful as a result. She doesn't have much influence in Midgar, but because Ed counts as a Cetra (like Aeris, just without her constant communication with the Lifestream), he attracts some of her energy back to the area.

(3) There's a _reason_ why Ed's so tired, and it's not the battle! I won't spoil the story, though.

(4) Check out the insert 'List of Current Turks V1' for more data on this if you want to know. And yes, I think Ed would want to know this after having been in the military, especially while he's still trying to figure out the rank system of the Turks.

(5) Yes, this IS actually Quis' (Nunchaku's) reason for joining the Turks, according to his character data. :D

(6) I just HAD to do this—the rank system in Before Crisis makes so little sense it's just stupid, and half the ranks feel just—tacked on for no reason or just because someone wanted to add extra ranks. So, I fixed it! Well, as much as I could given what I had to work with. And I also think Ed would do the same thing if offered the chance. Since Veld let him work on it, he did so, something he was never offered (never able to be offered) in the Amestrian Military. Veld's justification is that he actually _likes_ things to be as streamlined as possible, but he just doesn't have the time to do something like that. Since Ed basically offered to do the paperwork for him, he let the one who had both the time and inclination to do it get the task done.

(7) This was what Rufus Shinra looked like before he officially became the Vice President at 20 years old, when he mostly slicked his hair back. Since he's only 18 now, he hasn't slicked it back yet.


	45. List of Current Turks (V1)

**List of Current Turks in Catalyst Array**

These are the current Turks in the year 0000 as of the October 5th Midgar invasion and resulting 3 Rank promotion, by code name, primary weapon, age, Rank (mostly based on my head-canon), general hiring date (partly based on Compilation data and partly based on my head-canon), and hometown. I'm also going to include my head-canon of what their birth names would have been based on the system I decided to use for how they were being given code names (a few of these names show up in the story, Verdot for example).

In a more real setting, this system would have been too simplistic, but this is Shinra, and most of what they do doesn't make much sense, anyway, so the code name system was—just—good enough and no one felt like making it better (they won't unless a bunch of people start dying or having people they're close to threatened).

Just so everyone knows, the Compilation of FFVII DOES list 6 people as having joined in 0000: Ruluf, Freyra, Emma, Knife (Illis), Nunchaku (Quis), and Alvis. We don't know exactly when ANY of the Turks were hired, so I gave them dates, sometimes general and sometimes specific. It's also noted in Before Crisis that there is more than one 'department' of Turks as Balto was moved from one of them, but **this is the main group** , and some other Turks DO exist—but the main group is the main department and have the most strenuous orders. Assume the Turks in the other departments really do just find SOLDIER candidates while these ones take up the roles of doing Shinra's dirty work and are primarily investigative and combative.

I'm not including the people who would have been the 'old hands' who would have been dead by the time Ed got to Gaia, since we know nothing about them, and while I've made a list of OC's to fill those roles, it's not actually relevant here.

 **When the Rank system changes, I'll make another list to have everyone's new Rank as well as their old one under the original system, minus all this additional data. In Part 2 of the story, only the new Rank will show up.**

Current Rank list (17 ranks, the italic ones have no benefit to reaching): Trainee, Rookie, Member, Ace, Leader, Silver, Gold, _Platinum_ , Black, _Expert_ , Master, _Grand Master_ , Legend, _Galaxy_ , _Crystal_ , _All-Time_ , Omega

The most important part of this list is really just the first two (bold) items, as the capitalized primary weapons indicate their default 'name' in Before Crisis.

 _ **List Data Order:**_

 **Code Name, Primary Weapon** , Age, Rank, Hiring Date, Hometown, Birth Name

 **Veld** (Director) **, gun/martial arts** , 45+, Omega, pre-1980, Kalm, Verdot Pereld

 **Rude, martial arts** , 30+, All-Time^, 1994, unknown (maybe Costa del Sol?), Blade Rusk

 **Balto, Katana** , 22, Galaxy, 1996 February, Gongaga, Tomas Balfour

 **Tseng** (Second in Command) **, gun** , 19, Omega^, 1996 November, Wutai, Ren Kaoin (1)

 **Kariya* (Legend), bombs** , 40+, All-Time^, 1997 February, Junon, Sidney Dalton

 **Reno, electromagnetic rod** , 18, Legend, 1998 April, unknown (probably Midgar Slums), Noah Reid

 **Maur, Martial Arts (Male)** , 25, Grand Master, 1998 September, Costa del Sol, Urban Rehema

 **Judet** (2) **, Martial Arts (Female)** , 24, Grand Master, 1998 October, Icicle Inn, Harriet Judson

 **Cissnei, Shuriken** , 15, Master, 1999 March 23 (3), unknown/Midgar orphanage, Neirine Cissero

 **Illis*, Knife** , 20, Black, 0000 January 22, Corel, Lisa Ilya

 **Emma, Gun** , 18, Platinum, 0000 March 21 (3), Midgar Slums, Maria Emerio

 **Ruluf, Two Guns** , 21, Gold^, 0000 June 10, Midgar Slums (Sector 6), Russel Thorluf

 **Freyra, Shotgun** , 21, Gold^, 0000 June 17, Mideel, Kara Freyne

 **Alvis, Rod** , 18, Member, 0000 July 4, Midgar Slums, Dennis Alvar

 **Quis*, Nunchaku** , 18, Leader^, 0000 August 9, Bone Village, Travis Quaten

 **Eden, variety/magic** , 16, Leader^, 0000 September 10 (4), Amestris, Edward Elric

 **Vant, gun** , 50 (looks 25-ish), Leader^, 0000 September 11, unknown/Nibelheim (for lack of another place), Vincent Valentine (5)

End List

^Tseng had already been an All-Time, so could only be promoted 1 Rank to Omega; Kariya (house arrest and suspicion) and Rude (not really trying) had both been Legends, so were promoted 3 Ranks to All-Time; Ruluf and Freyra were Aces, so were prompted 3 Ranks to Gold; and Quis, Eden, and Vant were all Rookies before being promoted 3 Ranks to Leader. These promotions (except Tseng's) will later have to be corrected to a 2 Rank promotion under the new system Eden set up.

Ranks never took just one month to gain—many factors are involved in how quickly Turks (like in any unit) are promoted. The 3 Rank promotion is largely because a small number of people repelled an invasion, though SOLDIER didn't get the same system of promotion Veld decided to give the Turks to justify Eden's and Vant's Ranks.

* Kariya is a hijacked name, as was noted during the Genesis arc, but it's not my own creation. Illis and Quis both didn't have names the producers used for events, so those are completely made-up names which I've stabilized as my head-canon. The rest are considered canon.

(1) Ren Kaoin is the 'European' name order—all the data I've found indicates Wutains write their names the same way we do, not with the family name placed first like it would be in Japan or China. And somehow, this is absolutely my head-canon for Tseng...I can't give him another name if I want to (even when I give him different backgrounds in other fics), and other people's 'original names' for him just sound weird to me. Not that they aren't good names, I just personally find them strange—and the people who gave any FFVII Turks stable normal names probably feel the same way about the names I picked for the Turks in my stories. :D

(2) Judet is very much out of order, since in canon she joined in 0002 rather than at this timing, and a few other Turks (Maur, for example), weren't really given an indication of age or hiring date, other than 'sometime in this 3-year span'.

(3) These two dates are so close and specific because I've chosen to use the Japanese school system as the basis for their completion of the school year at the Shinra Academy, and their school year generally ends in late March, around the 21st—they're being hired the week after graduation. In this system, the Academy's school year has 3 terms which begin around the 20th of April. Tseng joined at an unusual time during the year as he also attended the Academy (whether the reason for this will come up in Part 2, I don't know). Wutai at this point doesn't run on this sort of system in my head-canon—out there, they just finish whenever they finish because they don't have a formal school system.

(4) Eden was literally hired on this date, but it was back-dated to August 29, when he gave Veld and Tseng the data he had on Deepground.

(5) We all know Vincent was a Turk two decades ago, but Vant IS new as of this date, so his previous term as a Turk is irrelevant to his new Rank and hiring date.

 **Is there anything else you want to see on this list? If so, please let me know so I can add it!**


	46. 45-Getting Caught Up

**A/N:** I'm going to be 'playing' with Zack's energy levels—there's no indication in the original of the path I'm taking this, but even then, I always thought Zack had WAY too much energy for someone in a combat role.

Getting Caught Up

Eden was sitting in a chair with a book in his hands as he watched an agitated Rufus pace his 'office' in the Shinra building. The office in question belonged officially to the Vice President, and while Rufus was slated to take the position and had been involved with the running of the company for some time (Ed wasn't sure exactly how long, though), he didn't officially hold the title yet. In a few of the books he'd read back in Junon, the main reason given for the lack of title amounted to Rufus being 'just a boy' and needing to gain some maturity and experience before the department heads would accept him in such a position. In the meantime, he used the Vice President's official office and did plenty of the paperwork required of the role—which he had done some of shortly after they'd returned to the room while Eden had found a book to read.

However, when Rufus had risen and started pacing agitatedly, the sixteen-year-old had turned his attention to his charge instead, still feeling a little puzzled by his new role. It wasn't that he had anything against being a guard, but he was new to the Turks, and he knew himself that he wasn't the best person around to mind 'kids', nor was he technically mentally stable enough to do what Veld had tasked him with. It was one thing for the President to say Eden was supposed to keep Rufus in one piece (being the eighteen-year-old's disciplinarian had been _very_ unexpected), because that would usually be the role of a guard.

It was another for Veld to say he had to _fix_ him.

As he'd said to Veld before, you can only fix people when they _want_ to be fixed, and he had doubts about Rufus wanting to. Ed had never been great at dealing with stupid people or people who irritated him, and most wealthy people did, in fact, irritate him. Short-term, he could more than fake being okay with them, but long-term was another story, and he'd lose his temper very quickly with Rufus, especially because he knew the older teen was angry with being 'saddled' with him, along with how Veld had been—quite patronizing. If it had been him on the receiving end, he'd probably have flown off the handle (it wasn't uncommon for Mustang to be somewhat patronizing with his 'teasing', so he _knew_ ), and while Rufus hadn't been too bad so far...he doubted that would last. He'd have to vent somehow, after all.

He had to wonder if the cold, angry teen even _could_ be saved, but for Veld to have done what he did, the Turks must have seen something of value there. The only question was if he would be able to find it and bring it out—but he sure wasn't going to handle Rufus with kid gloves in the process. He'd never be able to stay sane if he tried.

Now, it looked very much like Rufus was waiting for something, and said something had been—delayed. The older teen glanced at him periodically, but otherwise ignored him as he paced.

Finally, the eighteen-year-old's PHS rang, and he answered it with, "What took so long?" After a moment, he frowned and asked, "What?" His expression quickly began to become displeased as he listened to the reply, until his gaze suddenly turned to Eden, the look in his blue eyes more unsettled than displeased. The reply turned out to be quite long, and when the caller finally finished, Rufus said, "Keep me posted, then, and let me know if you need additional help."

When he hung up, he was still looking at Eden with an unsettled expression, like he didn't know what to make of him. Finally, he said, "You knew." When the younger teen just raised a brow in question, he elaborated, "You knew—about the world going into self-destruct mode, and about my part in the attack on the city. Why didn't you say anything, especially to Veld? You could have said it straight out, not offered another reason so they'd have to look into it."

"Well, I didn't actually _know_ your part in the situation, so even though I had a suspicion, I couldn't have said it as fact, anyway. I've gotten into trouble before because of doing that. As to the rest, no one asked, and I want to fix things," Eden replied. "Like Veld said, it's what I do—the challenge of fixing what's wrong, making it into something workable. Something which _won't_ get us all killed."

"The attack on the city could have triggered it had you and the rest not been there," Rufus pointed out.

The younger blond lifted his shoulders in a shrug and said, "I've got the strangest luck that way, I guess. I agree with the goal, Rufus, but not with the method. There are better ways to get fools and tyrants out of power without destroying millions of lives in the process. Or did you never think about the innocent children who would die in hospitals or the housewives who would be crushed under debris?"

"Necessary sacrifices."

"Maybe, but not by _your_ hands. There's a Weapon more than capable of doing that task without triggering the Planet's self-destruct mode. And if you judge them as 'necessary sacrifices', you'll get that judgment back in kind as that very thing."

"I don't care. My life has never been worth living, anyway," the older of the pair snarled.

"According to whom?"

"...What?"

"Who deemed your life not worth living?"

"My father."

"So kill him and take over the Company. One death. Validate yourself and start fixing things the right way, rather than the wrong one." (1)

"...Did you seriously just tell me to kill my own father?" Rufus actually looked surprised and unsettled by the words, wary as though afraid of being caught out.

"Why not? He's judged you—and everyone else, obviously—as unworthy, so he's going to get that judgment back. Either way, his path _will_ destroy the world if he won't see reason. I have no reason to think he will, or even _can_ , but _you_ still have the chance to choose another path." The reaction his new charge had to his suggestion to kill his own father made Eden wonder if that hadn't actually been Rufus' goal in letting the terrorists and Wutain invaders into the city—to kill his father for him. (2)

"...Tell me everything you know about the world's end."

Rufus was quiet for a long time while Eden told him about Chaos and Omega Theory, then for a long time afterwards as he stared out the window of his office. Finally, he asked, "How...Where did you find out about this?"

"Records at Shinra Manor in Nibelheim," the younger teen answered.

"You trust them?" he sneered, but there was no real feeling in it.

"Do you know the reputations Grimoire Valentine and Lucrecia Crescent had?"

"...They were better than most, I suppose."

"This was their work. By the fact that Chaos is here right now, I can safely say they have it right."

"Chaos is 'here'?"

"In Midgar."

"And we're all still alive?"

"The world hasn't quite reached the point of no return yet, but it's close. He won't attack until that point is reached, that line is crossed. If we want to keep him from reacting, we have to change things—a lot of them. And it's not as simple as stopping the Reactors, because even if we stop those, if all this rampant torture and killing keeps happening, the stagnant Mako pool will keep growing, and if it keeps growing, the result will be the same. Then there's the fact that stopping the Reactors only buys us time, it doesn't take us out of the danger zone—we have to find a way to put energy _back_ into the Planet as well."

"...Hence the reason you joined Shinra, and the reason the Turks trust you so much—you won't go against Shinra until you don't need their help anymore."

"The story's a lot more complicated, but no. They trust me because they share my thoughts and feelings and realize I'm not trying to 'destroy Shinra', I'm trying to _save_ it."

"How can you save it from a monster who would murder his own wife 'because she was flirting with other men', which she never actually did (3)?" Rufus snarled at him.

"Get over yourself," Eden snapped, crossing his arms and meeting the other's eyes, furious blue to cool, liquid gold. So Rufus knew his mother had been murdered by his father (the identity of the murderer had been news to Eden), but he _didn't_ have the experience Eden had with his stupid attempt to bring his mother back to life. "You didn't effectively kill your own brother—your closest friend and last living relative—with your own hands and stupidity or learn the hard way both how cheap and how _valuable life_ is. You've never had to learn the meaning of the phrase 'one is all, all is one'. Until you understand it, you won't understand what I'm getting at and what my goals are."

The eighteen-year-old first froze, then scowled again and said abruptly, "I'm going out!"

As he stalked out, Eden rose and stuffed the book he'd been reading in his pocket, following the white-clad teen out of the building (they could see workers nearly done repairing the front doors already) and into the city. Rufus mainly headed to areas where nothing in particular needed to be cleaned up or repaired after the attack, so what work had been needed was already done.

In very short order, it was obvious he was trying to lose his guard, but by the time they reached nightfall, he had failed dismally to get rid of the younger, rather amused teen. Both had worn off whatever emotion the previous discussion had generated, so both could think more clearly by the time Rufus stopped trying to lose Eden.

Admitting defeat, the older teen returned to his residence in Sector 1 near the Shinra building and turned in for the night, even failing to lose his guard when he tried to leave via the window. It was at that point when he realized his father and Veld had actually chosen the 'right' person to keep an eye on him, someone who would be able to keep up with him, or even stay several steps ahead. His pet, the black Blood Taste (they were usually dark red) called Dark Nation, seemed put out by that, too.

Since Eden knew he had to keep an eye on Rufus that night, he decided to take a bit of time to examine Dark Nation, since he'd never see a 'dog' quite like that before, though it seemed to be similar to the brief views of the blue-black colored Guard Hounds he'd seen around military personnel. It had short fur with a slender body shape like a greyhound's and a face more similar to a long-snouted lion's, but its tail was quite short and it had a 'tentacle' sticking out of the back of its head. At first, he thought maybe he was just seeing things, but no, the 'tentacle' was actually there, and it was just as prehensile as an actual tentacle, despite being covered in fur and having no suction cups. It served more as the Blood Taste's tail than its actual tail on its rump did, and apparently, Blood Tastes very much liked people playing with the tentacle, because very quickly the 'dog' started following him around to get attention.

For the first time, Eden also saw Rufus give a small, honest smile.

CA

The morning before, Zack had been extremely hyper and hadn't been able to sit still. Even after a very intensive workout with Angeal, the black haired sixteen-year-old had been in need of his routine of squats to expend it all. They'd gone over the process of pushing excess energy into Materia, just to make sure he understood it, but the older man had very little faith his protegee had the focus to actively do the task. This morning, Genesis was at his window as he chuckled at something in the papers he was reading (probably something from Sephiroth's office, as he'd been there just before arriving at Angeal's office) when the door opened quietly and Zack stepped inside.

Stepped.

Not ran, not bounced, not jumped, not hopped, not skipped.

 _Stepped_.

Angeal's brow rose as the Second picked a chair across from him and sat down, then asked, "So, what happened to all your energy, Zack?" Genesis turned to look at the boy with a raised brow.

Zack pulled a Materia shard from his pocket and held it up—it was the basic Heal Materia, one he hadn't been using up to that point. Offering it silently to his mentor, he just waited until the man had taken it and examined it for a minute before looking up with wide eyes, then pulled out a second shard and held that out as well. Angeal took it and blinked before his eyes widened further, then Zack held up a different Materia shard, his Restore. Again, when Angeal took it, the younger man drew yet one more shard from his pocket and offered it to his new mentor. Angeal now held a Mastered Heal and Restore, a Heal which was half-way to Mastered, and a Restore which was obviously newly-born.

"How?" the man asked, feeling like he'd been hit by a truck. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened," Zack answered seriously. "I didn't want to believe what you told me—that my energy was affecting my focus and this would fix it because Materia grow using that same energy—so I pushed all night. I Mastered Heal first because that was the one we'd been training on, then Mastered my Restore. And even though I was getting tired, I didn't want to believe it...Until I actually passed out from exhaustion while pushing energy into the second Heal, which is why it's got Esuna on it already."

"Wait, let me get this straight," Genesis said with a small, puzzled frown. "You completely Mastered a Heal, half-Mastered another, and half-Mastered a Restore—in less than twenty-four hours?"

"Yeah," the black haired teen agreed. "On the other hand, I've still got plenty of energy now, but it's like—something in my mind cleared up, I guess? I don't have as much energy as, say, yesterday morning, but still lots of it. My focus is a lot better, and I don't feel like I have to stay moving because of all that energy."

Genesis rubbed the back of his head as Angeal held the orbs back out to Zack and asked, "Does that mean you're going to keep pushing energy into the Materia shards you have on you in order to maintain that focus?"

"I might as well. I mean, we could have a sparring match again and see how it compares to yesterday, but I'm sure it won't be any different outside my newly-found focus. That means I'm producing so much energy that even draining myself doesn't actually mean I'm 'without energy', it just means I'm operating at the level of a normal person. Or as normal as a SOLDIER _can_ be."

"Do that with the elements next," Genesis said suddenly, making the other two look at him in surprise and confusion. "No, listen—there _is_ a reason for this. Eden is a Materia expert who has an experiment he wants to try. I have a feeling he's going to need Mastered Materia to make it work, and you're going to turn out to be the fastest, most sure source of Mastered Materia out there. He needs samples of the elements as a starter trial, so Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, and Gravity—I'll get you one of the last. And I suggest you keep track, on paper, of your energy levels and the degree of Mastering the shards get as you go."

"Why Mastered Materia?" Zack asked with a frown.

"Because Mastered Materia are more stable than un-Mastered ones," the red haired man answered dryly. "Much more stable."

"I see..." the teen answered dryly, then looked at Angeal. "Do you think so, too, Angeal?"

"Well, those two being the Materia experts, I actually think they have the right of it," the black haired man said with a nod. "They know what they're doing, and even if Eden's work is experimental, there are certain universal truths about Materia. Stability is one of them. I prefer to use higher-level magics—twos or threes—over lower-level ones because I have better control over them as well as them being intrinsically stronger."

"...So...Mastering them faster is better for control, too?" the sixteen-year-old asked.

"It is," Angeal agreed. "Though the 'faster' part is optional. You just get that bonus."

Zack looked between the two curiously for a few moments before turning to Genesis and saying, "I'll work on them next, then, but I get to keep the first Mastered set since I'll need to use it." When Genesis nodded, he asked, "Can you show me how to set up that data you wanted me to track? And who do I give it to?"

"You can hand it to Angeal weekly, or to myself or Eden," Genesis answered as he found a blank sheet of paper and a pen. "I'll let Eden know in case he happens to be the first one you find at the end of a particular week. Now, as to how you're going to set it up, it'll be something like this..." He then wrote out the data he wanted in the order he wanted it in, explaining it to Zack as he went, then getting him to fill in the data from the previous night. Soon after, Genesis had a copy of the first set of data and Zack had the original to use to base his future submissions on.

Angeal and Zack then headed for the training rooms while Genesis returned to his office to file the papers before heading out to see Shalua.

CA

It took him an hour to be able to meet with his sister, and that was only because she—and Anthony, he noted with some amusement—had a break and a free class after it that day. He raised a brow at the pair, watching until Shalua noticed he was there, and when she saw him, she gave him a tight hug. Many other students were watching them in curiosity or confusion, but Genesis and Shalua both ignored them.

"What happened with everyone?" she asked with a frown. "Dad came back down to help us finish registering, then nothing until two days after the attack!"

"We've been busy after the invasion, you know," the red haired man commented in amusement, beckoning Anthony over. When the boy had joined them, he said, "So, tell me about your classes and how things are going so far."

"Neither of us really knew what would be the best types of classes to take, but the secretary helped me out a bit when she heard I wanted to try for SOLDIER," Anthony said. "But I'm hungry, so can we go talk in the cafeteria?"

With a chuckle, the red haired man agreed, "Lead the way!"

The two kids led him to the Academy's cafeteria, where Shalua got a fruit drink and a bag of nuts to munch on while Anthony grabbed a plate of sandwiches, a small piece of cake, and milk. Without a word, the server in the student cafeteria handed Genesis a coffee with milk and sugar in it, then proceeded to ignore his presence, causing him a sense of bemusement at the action. The three then sat down at the end of one of the long tables where the benches were easier to get onto and off of. Shalua sat beside Genesis and Anthony sat across from them.

"Now, how is it you both have a free class now?" Genesis asked in mild amusement as he looked between them.

"Combat class usually has a free block after it," Shalua said.

"Combat class? You're taking one as well?" her brother asked with a raised brow.

"It's the ranged class," she shrugged. "There's different types of ranged weapons, and we have to practice with all of them before picking one—but they let you pick the order you do them in, so I started with a handgun and Anthony started with throwing knives. All my other classes are academic, like science, biology, medicine, and languages and maths. Those kinds of things, like what I was doing with the doctor."

"So you want to go into the sciences?"

"Kinda. I'm still trying to decide, but I liked working with the doctor, so that was a good start. Maybe in awhile, I'll take a Materia class, too."

"Sounds like a good way to start, anyway," Genesis agreed, then looked at the boy across the table and said, "So, I can assume you're taking one of every combat class and the Materia class. There are four combat classes—ranged, hybrid style, unarmed, and armed—so what else have you filled in with?"

Anthony blinked in surprise, frozen with his sandwich in his mouth, then bit off the bite, chewed, and swallowed before saying, "Language, math—it's a different one from Shalua's though—and law and regulation. I added a class in...I think it's called 'zoology' because it teaches things about animals and monsters we'll run into. After all, SOLDIERs are often sent to fight them, but I've never seen any before besides the ones on our way here, and Eden fought—all of those, really."

"Too true," Genesis agreed. "It was a good choice to add in. How have you managed so far after your—illness? In the combat classes especially?"

"We've only had the ranged combat class so far, since we actually only began lessons today," the fourteen-year-old boy said, looking faintly amused by his former condition being referred to as an 'illness'. "But part of why I chose to start with throwing knives was to find that out—they're one of the most energy and activity-intensive weapons in the ranged category."

"The results?"

"Decent. I'll have to put some work in on my own, but how much I won't know until I've had the other classes. I'll start with a broadsword and a shuriken in the armed and hybrid classes for the reason of testing my limits."

With a nod, the young man snagged a few of Shalua's nuts—which made her jaw drop open in surprise—and chewed on them before asking, "What did you think of Shalua's apartment? Or were you somehow never able to get that far?"

"No, we did," he answered. "It's nice, I guess. Better than where I lived before, anyway. And that cat!" He glared down at his plate.

With one brow raised at an amused Shalua, he asked, "What did Cait Sith do to him?"

"Oh—he actually knocked him flat on his ass and told him to keep his hands off me or he'd be suffering retribution from a dozen people," the girl answered.

Genesis' brow rose higher and he asked, "Why?"

"Because he's a boy and clearly not related to me," she replied dryly. "I think Reeve was sort of behind that, though."

The red haired man had to laugh at that and look back at Anthony to say, "You do know men—and even some women—are very protective of the people they care about, right?" When confused, brown eyes met his, he went on, "You never really had anyone you were so close to, so it's a new thing for you to see or experience, but Shalua isn't the only one people are protective of. V—ant and Sephiroth are both rather protective of you, and would come to your defense before hers. It doesn't even have to do with being weak or strong, it just has to do with not wanting to see you hurt."

Anthony was still frowning in confusion, but slowly nodded. "How did a robotic cat get to care so much about Shalua, though? And why would its creator care?"

"Reeve can see what goes on around the cat, and the cat staying with Shalua is a hedonist," the red haired man answered with a shrug. "Shalua pampered Cait Sith something awful in a week, and part of the reason I wanted Cait Sith to stay with her was so I'd know right away if something was wrong. If Reeve spent any amount of time actively watching over her after everything else he's already done for me, and for us, it wouldn't surprise me if he was a little protective. Especially of a fourteen-year-old girl bringing home a fourteen-year-old boy who is bigger and stronger than her and would be capable of hurting her. Even more if he recognized you as your former self."

"What would be the point in doing that?" the black haired boy asked blankly.

"You might be thinking with the wrong head, like most of the boys our age are," Shalua put in dryly, making him blink at her with a complete lack of understanding. "And it's not whether you _would_ , it just makes them feel better to know you've been warned."

"...I think I won't understand any of this until I..." the boy began, then drifted off.

"You're emotionally stunted right now, so I'm not actually surprised," Genesis told him. "As you start broadening your understanding of emotion, it'll start making sense, because you'll start to feel protective of those you care about, yourself."

"It's hard to think of anyone actually caring..." Anthony said softly, eyes blank as he hid his actual feelings behind a glassy exterior.

The older man reached over and gripped his arm firmly as he said, "You'll get used to it eventually. Do you really think you'd be here right now if we didn't care, didn't trust you to do right by us? Even myself and Eden, who you attacked directly, have seen a child who can take a different path if given the chance to do so. Tseng's questioning wasn't what you had expected, either, was it?"

"...Well, no. I thought all of that was mostly because I was so weakened by what Eden had done that day...Do you mean it wasn't because you all thought I was beneath your notice in my current state?"

"Would that account for us covering for you?"

Anthony didn't seem to know how to answer that question, so kept eating instead...but he only used his free hand and left the one Genesis held in the man's grip.

"Do you know there's a girl in the ranged class with us who wants to use guns, and she acts like a walking recording machine?" Shalua threw in suddenly, making Genesis' gaze go to her in mild amusement.

"A walking recording machine?" he asked, lips twitching.

"Yes! Someone says something to her, like instructions, and she repeats it exactly if she's asked to remind herself or others of the instructions she was given. It's weird, like she doesn't know she doesn't have to repeat them, just _do_ them."

Chuckling, the man said, "Well, maybe the teachers use her deliberately to remind the whole group of the instructions."

"They're completely teaching her the wrong way for real life, though, especially since she—apparently wants to join the Turks, even though she's upset her _older_ sister got chosen and she didn't. (4) If she really wants to join the Turks, she's basically being trained to announce their actions to the enemy!" Shalua glared.

Genesis' brow rose and he said, "I'll let Tseng know and he can warn her sister to tell her the error of her ways in that regard. Because yes, that's dangerous."

"Good! Thanks," the girl said happily.

 **Notes:**

(1) Ed is mostly going for the shock factor of the words rather than the actual intent to have Rufus personally kill his own father. At the same time, after what he's been through with how many people he just killed in the invasion and essentially the guarantee they'd have to kill President Shinra, anyway, he's looking at it as 'better to kill just the one who committed the crime than countless people who haven't done anything.' Yes, the Ed from Amestris would probably balk at even suggesting this, but he's changed—sorry to anyone who thinks people eternally stay as they are in all ways.

(2) To make sure everyone's up to speed, part of the canon reason Rufus was funding the terrorists was to try to get them into a position where they could kill his father for him so he could take over as President without people questioning his right to be in the role.

(3) We know Rufus' mother was murdered around when he was 8, but we don't particularly get any further explanation, so this one made some degree of sense, President Shinra being as possessive as he is, and he could easily have taken her as flirting because she smiled at another man. This is a short-hand borrow from another fanfic writer, but I can't remember the story or author name now. **If someone knows which FFVII fic here on FFN I mean, please let me know so I can credit them properly! I haven't been able to find it again myself.**

(4) Emma and Elena are the two here, Emma (Gun) being the older sister and Elena the younger, who is currently only 14, herself. The thing is that I'm changing the dynamic between them somewhat because I CANNOT picture a girl/woman reacting the way the creators seem to think Elena would to her sister being chosen.

As a woman myself, the mentality they gave Elena makes zero sense to me (though I could see a boy acting this way), because it basically meant giving up HER OWN dreams in a fit of rage and vengeance—except that she wasn't being vengeful AT ALL and the only one she was hurting was herself. Since Emma has only been a Turk for about seven months, Elena hasn't gone fully into that mindset, and is going to grow up more, faster, and despite the competitive nature of the sisters, I'll reset that to be more along the lines of 'friendly' because of the whole shift in the story line.

So, Emma and Elena will still compete with each other, and Elena will still get ticked with Emma sometimes (or vice versa), but neither will hate the other and neither will give up their own dreams for reasons which make no sense at all. Also, since I DON'T get Elena's habit of announcing the Turks' orders to the enemy in the main game, I'm assuming that's a character flaw, the main reason the Turks DIDN'T take her when they took Emma, and something she needs to fix in order to become a Turk herself.


	47. 46-Retaliation

**A/N:** Since there were concerns about this, I'm going to clarify for those who didn't catch or don't remember me having said certain things: NO ONE on Gaia is 'just trusting Ed's word'.

In Nibelheim, Ed sorted through the Shinra Manor data and TOOK SOME OF IT WITH HIM. That data, he didn't hoard, he shared it with his allies while in Costa del Sol—as would have been logical for him to do. That's on top of Vincent and his actual state as Chaos, which the people who were in Costa del Sol know.

In the case of Rufus, Elfe and Shears left the Shinra building with the intent to ask Fuhito if he knew about Chaos and Omega Theory. The call Rufus got was from them confirming Fuhito knew about it, and he only got Eden to tell him more because he remembered Eden saying in Veld's office that he 'wouldn't let Rufus get them all killed over a grudge.' All Ed did in Rufus' case was fill in details, he wasn't the source of the data. Rufus knows Turks are 'the information people', so he has no reason to doubt the details, no matter how he currently feels about the Turks in general.

For anyone who was already aware of this: **thank you for your attention to details and your good memories!** *Gives them free cookies!*

Retaliation

After a couple days of tagging along with Rufus, who was 'walking' Dark Nation and clearly trying very hard to make his life difficult, Eden was tired. Not as tired as he'd been after the battle on the balcony three days ago, but tired all the same. Dry reading wouldn't keep him awake until Rufus fell asleep, so he found something else to read—a book which was actually a fiction of the mystery variety, though fiction in general was pretty rare on that world. In the process of his reading, he vaguely heard the older teen turn in and paused long enough to make sure he didn't try to sneak out. That time, he didn't, so the sixteen-year-old kept reading. Soon after Rufus went to sleep, Dark Nation joined him to sleep at his feet, tentacle wound around one of his legs, letting him know his charge was indeed asleep.

Some time later, after he'd noted Rufus fall asleep, he heard the door open quietly and looked up sharply at the same time as Dark Nation lifted his head—only to see Tseng step around the corner softly. Eden rested a hand on Dark Nation's head to keep him calm, but the hound didn't seem inclined to rise, anyway. The Wutain man took a quick look around, then headed straight to Eden when he saw him in the chair, digging in his pocket to withdraw two cards. Both cards had the blond's Turk name on them, but one was clearly his ID and the other was the 'bank card' he'd been told about. When the blond took them, the other man sat on the arm of his chair instead of leaving, even petting Dark Nation for a minute as both the dog's tail and tentacle waved—the latter had to release his leg to do so, and he was grateful for that. Realizing Tseng wanted to talk, Ed tucked the cards away and stuck his finger in his book to hold his place as he closed it.

"What's up?" the blond asked softly.

"Security has been tightened and everyone passing the city check-points now needs to have ID, even if it's just a general and temporary one—you were lucky we came up on the train before security was booted up, since they didn't care much about ID at that point, and the tracks have frequent check-points."

"I guess it's also good Rufus hasn't tried to leave the Upper Plate, too, then. What else?"

"Veld checked up on Rufus' communications with others on both his own PHS and a secondary one he acquired. It seems he's frequently in contact with AVALANCHE's leaders, and has been providing them small quantities of regular funds," Tseng said. "He was also the one who called Veld away, but how he knew about the destruction of Shinra Manor, I'm not sure. Unless he just lucked out on picking a random place where there was a legitimate problem for Veld to find, which is possible. However, after the data you gave us from Shinra Manor—I've passed it on to Veld as well—our Director won't act against him unless he gets too far out of control for you to handle—he's placing a great deal of faith in your ability to pull him back."

"Lovely. Just leave it all to me to fix," Eden sighed, and the man chuckled. "What else did you need?"

"We're working on tracking Deepground's entrance. Since we don't have any of the original plans for the building, a few of the Turks are going to discreetly work on floor plans based on what's actually there today. Once we have those, I'd like you to look at them with a few of us to see if we can see any discrepancies. Also, Genesis said to let you know the Second you laid flat after the meeting in the President's office Mastered two Materia overnight by pushing his energy into them. The Second is supposed to keep doing that and making records of his energy levels, which he may turn in to you if he doesn't find Angeal or Genesis first."

"I see. Did he say why?"

"He's going to get Zack to produce Mastered Materia for your fusion experiment."

"...Okay, that's an interesting way to look at it. I haven't encountered Mastered Materia before, so what's the difference?"

"Stability. The closer to Mastered they are, the more stable and functional they are."

"...And the more stable they are, the more likely they are to actually fuse!"

"You're the expert on that," Tseng shrugged. "But I would think stability would be a factor, and the degree of stability would also correspond to the likelihood of success."

"It would," Eden agreed with a grin. "It'll also help track the energy levels needed to do short-term Mastering, which—there's something that's been at the edge of my mind for awhile saying it's important..."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out in time," the man answered. "We're also keeping a watch on Genesis just in case Deepground tries for him again—we can't take the risk of being unprepared, and there's added danger from Hojo. Veld was right to worry about the man's reaction to his losses, and the people he's most able to take it out on are the ones in SOLDIER. Genesis is up for grabs even though Hollander has been dealing with him up to this point, and we know the President will let him just disappear, whether it's into Hojo's hands or Deepground's. On the other hand...Sephiroth just spent all day with Hojo, and is probably not going to be in a good way tomorrow."

"Hojo's a sadist in more ways than one, in other words," the blond said, gaze going to the window across the room. "How is Sephiroth still sane with the way Hojo must have tortured him for his whole life?"

"It wasn't quite as bad as it sounds as far as I'm aware. Not that he wasn't tortured, because he was, about once a month if our recent records are anything to go by. He was mainly in training until fourteen, when he was brought into SOLDIER officially, and was sixteen when he was first introduced to Genesis and Angeal. Maybe he would be in much worse shape without his two friends, and now he has a much stronger base than that to stabilize him. It doesn't change the fact that today has been Hell for him."

"Who would be likely to become the head of the Science Department if we took out Hojo and Hollander?"

"A young man Hojo has been training for five years and has gotten the taste of power and blood."

"...Is there even anyone in that department who has honor?"

"Probably, but not many, and they keep quiet about it. I'm thinking most of them will be the ones who are just sorting and organizing the test result notes, rather than the ones doing the tests or making the notes."

"Well, there's one disaster in the making."

"We have worse ones to deal with first."

"How likely is it that Hojo would claim Genesis for anything?"

"If he knows anything about Nero, he's as likely to try for him as Deepground, and will be just as cruel. Then again, he may take him now regardless, just to vent."

"Maybe you should give him a tracker to start wearing now."

"I could. It would be too soon for me to make contact with him again, however, so unless he needs to seek out the Turks, I can't give him one."

"I could—it's no secret we're friends and meet frequently."

The offer made the Wutain pause thoughtfully, then agree, "That would be the best option, assuming Veld and the President are willing to risk Rufus to someone else."

"If they're not, I won't be able to do much for you."

"Point taken. In the meantime, we also need to find time for you to meet Reeve directly and to meet the young lady I told you about."

"Yeah, again—if I have to babysit Rufus and no one else is trusted to do so, when am I going to get the chance?"

"We'll work that out. To be honest, they can't keep you working twenty-four-seven, since even SOLDIERs can't do that, so they'll have to find someone else to relieve you anyway."

"Vant should be able to keep tabs on him while I'm busy elsewhere."

"True, but that would be rather—suspicious for both of our newest members to be allocated to guard duty on the President's son."

"Then get Kariya to do it."

"Kariya won't be allowed because he used to be a terrorist himself. In this case, that's not even my personal opinion, it's just a fact. Veld tried already and the offer was rejected."

"So why is it so hard to find a guard for a guy the Turks are apparently supposed to be guarding, anyway?"

"...Probably because we've mainly been trained to follow orders, and it's decidedly difficult to go against your top boss' or his heir's orders when you've been taught to follow them to a T. As a result, we lose half our efficiency as guards because he can order us to leave him be or do other tasks for him, and we have a tendency to—fulfill it. There aren't many Turks who can completely disregard the orders of our bosses. Veld could—you saw him step out of his trained Turk role—but as our Director, he can't take that much time. We're only able to do as much for you as we can because we're not being given orders about that at all with how we've been keeping it from the President."

"I see...Well, then, if this is going to prove so problematic, get Sephiroth to guard him while you need me for something, since he'll obey the order to 'guard' regardless of other orders which would conflict with it."

Tseng was actually quiet for a few minutes after that, then huffed a small chuckle and said, "I think they would—have issues. But yes, that's a possibility, assuming he's available."

"Good. So, are there any actual plans for the next little while, or was this just an update so I had some idea of what to expect in the future?"

"I want you to meet the young lady as soon as possible, and I know she'll be at home in the evening tomorrow. Assuming I can get Sephiroth or another capable Turk to take over for you for a few hours, I'd be coming to collect you around seven in the evening. As for Reeve—Veld has said he's working on a way to get you in to see him, but the man has a very full schedule, so...it may take awhile."

"Understood. Oh, and find some way to get Vant or Anthony to visit Sephiroth, or both of them. They both understand what he's just suffered at Hojo's hands."

"I can suggest Vant find his son and visit Sephiroth easily enough," Tseng agreed, rising. "I'll leave you to your work, then. Get some rest while you can." The man then left as Ed flipped his book open again to finish the chapter he was on.

CA

An hour later, Vant and Anthony arrived at Sephiroth's door, but there was no answer when they knocked, so the Turk used his card to open the door for them, a modification to his card Veld had given him because Sephiroth was his son. The main room was dark, but Vant's senses were improved enough that he could smell blood from the direction of the private bathroom. Anthony followed him quietly as he led the way to the room, and both blinked and stared in shock at the silver haired man sitting on the floor, leaning against the tub.

He had stripped down to his underwear and the cloth clenched in one of his hands had clearly been being used to clean some of the blood from his body—a task he'd since given up on. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his head rested on them, but his arms had fallen to his sides limply and his hair was soaked with blood. Most of the injuries seemed to have closed, but the blood loss and damage had taken its toll, and the man was clearly in bad shape, his skin even paler than usual. In one corner of the bathroom was a pile of bloody clothes.

Anthony and Vant traded looks, then the man quietly approached Sephiroth and gently touched the hand he clutched the cloth in. The younger man flinched and tried to lift his head, but couldn't manage, so settled back down as the older man gently tugged the cloth free. Anthony turned on the water to be just pleasantly warm, and Vant rinsed the cloth before going back to his birth son and gently wiping his arms and legs. While he worked on the first arm, the fourteen-year-old with him found a pail and filled it with water so he could rinse the cloth without going back to the sink every time.

By the time he'd finished with the silver haired man's limbs, he'd also managed to gather all of his hair to one side of his head and had even cleaned much of the blood from it. That left his back open for washing, so Vant continued down his back. When he finished, Sephiroth leaned back against the tub and eased his legs down to the ground so the older man could continue on his chest and the tops of his thighs. The water was dark red with blood by the time the black haired man finished, but at least the majority of the blood had been cleaned off by then.

Anthony had left the room for a bit, but returned around then with a glass of water which was room temperature, which he gave to Vant. It was only when the man lifted the glass to Sephiroth's lips that the younger man opened his eyes enough to see them, but he didn't actually react to their presence right away. It took until he'd almost finished the glass of water for his eyes to clear and open enough to focus properly on the pair.

"...Why?" he whispered when Vant lowered the glass.

"Don't I have the right to take care of my son when he's hurt?" the older man asked in reply, setting the glass aside. "Could you eat something like soup right now? I daresay you couldn't handle more after a day with Hojo."

Closing his eyes for a minute, Sephiroth considered the question, then said, "A mild soup. I need food, though." He opened his eyes again to meet his father's, seeing the man nod.

Vant rose and turned to Anthony as he said, "Stay with him for now, maybe help him get a little more cleaned up while I make something for him to eat."

"Okay," the fourteen-year-old agreed. The older man gathered the bloody clothes and left the room, and the boy crouched beside the twenty-year-old as he said, "You know he means the internal injuries, not your hair, right?"

With a sound like a soft sigh, the man asked, "Why are you here? I...somewhat understand him being here, but you..."

"I'm effectively your brother, and I know what this feels like, too," the boy replied in a mild tone. "Deepground is no better. I remember the internal tissue samples they always took, knowing they could chop a part of the intestinal wall off and it would heal soon after. That never made it less painful, and healed or not, you still need to clean that up."

"...No one has ever...been around before...Often Genesis and Angeal were getting similar tests done at the same time, so we could not have helped each other, anyway. And you...would this be an insult to your view of strength?"

"Not really. It's strange to think about now, but we...Nero, Rosso, Argento, even Azul, and I all helped each other out this way after brutal sessions. We never complained since it was going to happen, it was just life, but I think that contact was the only thing keeping us sane down there. And could you really turn your back if it was me who needed the care, blood brother or not?"

For a minute, Sephiroth didn't answer, but then he said, "It has never been this bad before. Bad...but not like this."

Anthony was also quiet for a minute before asking, "Think you could get in the shower or a bath to finish washing? I'll help get you into the tub, either way."

"...I suppose I can go that far..."

With the words, the boy turned on the bath water, got it to a good temperature and asked, "Bath or shower?"

"...I had best shower or I might not move again after."

Starting the shower water running, the boy helped the young man up and helped him strip off his underwear before guiding him over the edge of the tub and into the shower stall so he could sit under the stream of water. He then closed the curtain to give the man a bit of privacy and looked around the room. There was blood on the floor, the side of the tub, and the counter in front of the sink, and there was also the bloody underwear to contend with. He dumped the water from the pail down the toilet and refilled it with fresh water so he could wipe down the bathroom surfaces in need of cleaning, and threw the underwear in there to soak while he cleaned.

"Doing all right?" he asked when he was done and had dumped the next round of somewhat bloody water down the sink drain, the now mostly clean underwear hanging over the edge of the sink.

After a pause, the older man said, "I think I need help with my hair."

Despite the situation, Anthony had to smile faintly as he commented, "That's what you get for keeping it so long."

He then pushed the curtain aside and saw that Sephiroth had managed to use the soap on most of his body, but lifting his arms above shoulder height was something he just didn't have the muscle strength for. Since the man had put shampoo in his hands and had been working it through some of the lower parts of his hair, the fourteen-year-old took some in his own hands and began working it gently through his 'brother's' hair around the top of his head. It was nice hair, admittedly, but it was so long it wasn't very practical in this kind of situation—Rosso, Nero, and Argento had run into the same situation. The result was that it invariably required assistance to clean when injured, though Argento and Rosso (and even Nero) may have kept their hair long exactly for the extra contact it gave them.

When he was finished, he helped the man up so he could stand under the spray to rinse his hair properly, then helped him step out so he could sit on the rim of the tub. The boy then grabbed the towel from the drying bar and wrapped it around the man, who clearly didn't want to move any further right away.

"Done?" Vant asked from the door.

"Almost," Anthony said. "I don't think Sephiroth can move any further now, and we need something for him to wear."

The older man gave a nod and stepped out of the room, returning soon after with a pair of sleeping shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. After the two had mostly dried Sephiroth and dressed him, Vant picked the silver haired man up in both arms and carried him to the kitchen, shocking the younger, who had never been treated like that before in his life. There were three bowls on the table, and the older man placed his son gently in the chair in front of one of them, then stepped back and went to the chair across from Sephiroth's. Anthony sat at the seat between the two, quietly tested the soup, and made a small face but kept eating. After a pause, Sephiroth also tasted the soup, his movements slow and careful, though he didn't make a face and didn't even look up.

It was only after Vant saw the younger man eating that he took his own first spoonful—and almost spat it out when Sephiroth said quietly, "I hate feeling so weak."

Setting his spoon back in his bowl, the older man said evenly, "Everyone hates feeling weak. No matter how strong or capable a person is, sometimes it's just too much to handle for our body, and it tells us very forcibly to take it easy. By morning, you'll be fine and all of this will feel like a dream."

"You do not know what this is like!" the silver haired man protested, looking up with a teary-eyed glare. (1)

Before he could stop himself, Vant had reached across the table and slapped the younger man (2), causing Anthony's jaw to fall open and Sephiroth's eyes to widen in shock, tears forgotten. It hadn't been a hard slap, but it had made itself felt. After drawing in a deep breath, Vant lowered his hand and said, "I'm not here to feed your pity party, and you're conveniently ignoring the fact that I was also tortured by Hojo. I know what kind of man he is and what he does to his test subjects, and especially what he does to them when he's angry. It's not a pleasant thought for anyone to be at his mercy, let alone when he's angry, but he chose you because it would be very hard for him to kill you, and there's nothing any of us can do about that fact."

A long silence followed, then Sephiroth's head lowered for a minute. Finally, he looked back up at his father and asked slowly, "He was angry? At what?"

"Shinra Manor burned down and the Nibel Reactor Lab was destroyed," Vant answered. "He lost decades of research data, and most of his experimental specimens as well. That includes Jenova."

Wide eyes and a sharp intake of breath were the twenty-year-old's first response, then he thought to ask, "How do you know?"

"...Veld was called away about it, and we...Tseng, Eden, and I, were all ordered not to discuss the issue or say a word if he took it out on us or if we witnessed another's 'punishment'. It was through Tseng we knew you'd been all day with him."

"...I see. So...I am all he has left of his experiments?"

"Yes. Officially. I think he believes 'Vincent Valentine' to be dead as well."

After a silence, Sephiroth turned back to his soup as he said, "In a way, that makes more sense...He had to replace the data he lost, so everything he had previously done in stages, he did all at once. For him, it re-established his research, sated his anger, and fed his sadism, all at once, and his victim was someone who he knew, as you said, would survive the experience."

"This is also more complicated, because there's a chance he'll go after Genesis as well. I don't know if anyone's realized it, but he'll be guaranteed to catch your blood in him as soon as he runs a blood test. What happens then?" Vant asked.

As the silver haired man was about to take another spoonful of soup, he stopped and lowered the spoon slowly back to his dish, musing softly, "If he can claim Genesis for the same reason Deepground did, and finds that my blood has tainted the experiment, not only would Genesis be allocated as a failure again, but he would probably be killed...tortured to death for Hojo's so-called experiments. Unless there is something about his genetic make-up which would cause Hojo to take an active interest in him...In which case, he will be in the same situation as me."

"Would that protect him from Deepground?" Anthony suddenly asked, making the other two look up at him in mild surprise. "He came to see Shalua at the Academy, and he treated me like part of the family, too, so I guess he sees you—and me—more like a brother? Anyway, would Hojo being interested in him protect him from Deepground?"

Shaking his head, Sephiroth answered, "It is not likely. If the President already gave Deepground approval to take him, he will not retract it, regardless of who 'has' him at the time. And somehow, I have a feeling they would take him anyway, even if the President _did_ retract his approval."

"In which case, we have to be prepared to track Deepground and Hojo, and maybe even Hollander," Vant put in, and Sephiroth nodded.

"How Hollander would react to this, I do not know, but it will not be much better than how Hojo would, and getting him stuck between the two doctors could actually make Deepground the better option. That, or someone executes Hojo and Hollander in short order," the silver haired man sighed.

"I'll let Tseng know, but currently, part of the reason we aren't doing anything about Hojo is because we don't have anyone 'better' to put in his place and we'd just be right back where we are now," the older man said.

Sephiroth nodded slightly and they all kept eating slowly.

 **Notes:**

(1) This has two reasons. Yes, Sephiroth has been 'tortured' since he was young, but never as extensively as Hojo just did. I chose not to give a detailed description of either the torture or the injuries because it's frankly not that important to the story line, and I don't particularly care to read (or write) the descriptions of someone's torture. The important parts are the fact that it happened and the reason it did. This is also the first time he's got help, so he's going to be a little—bratty and have a bit of a pity party. Or try to. This is actually a fairly common reaction, not to the abuse, but to the novelty of having someone there when there previously had never been.

(2) Vincent's reaction was partly an instant reaction (of anger) to Sephiroth trying to say he didn't understand when he's suffered at Hojo's hands and the General KNOWS it, and it was partly because he already learned his lesson with Ed, and found that pity parties never helped anyone recover. After all, he'd been having one of his own when he met Ed, and realized he may be able to do more than he'd thought at first by moving past his self-pity for what he hadn't been able to do in the past.


	48. 47-Experimental Subject

**A/N: Warning:** This chapter may end up being a trigger for some people, so be a little cautious about reading it if you have any concerns, though I hope I wasn't descriptive enough for long enough to make it that bad. If you think you might, read until Genesis is in the doctor's office, then skip to the break and keep reading from there.

Experimental Subject

Morning arrived all too quickly, and a sleepy Angeal and Sephiroth met Genesis in the cafeteria for breakfast. "What happened to the two of you?" the red haired man asked of them with a small frown.

"Hojo—an angry Hojo," Sephiroth sighed, picking at his food.

"Oh, that's bad," Angeal said, reaching over to give his shoulder a pat before rubbing his own eyes. "I went with Zack on a short-term mission yesterday to the Mythril Mine. The kid found a Materia shard there, so I let him keep it. The whole thing was just overloaded with monsters. I've never seen anything like it before, and they didn't all seem to have come from inside the mine, either."

"That's odd," Genesis frowned a bit in puzzlement, then turned his gaze to Sephiroth. "But what was Hojo so angry about? Did you ever find out?"

"The reason Veld was called away—Shinra Manor in Nibelheim was destroyed, along with all his records and experiments in the area," the silver haired man shrugged, then started eating properly. "Vant told me last night when he came by to help sort me out after..."

"Oh, that—" the red haired man blinked and stared, stopping mid-sentence as the pieces fit together in his mind. He knew that was what Eden had been talking about when he'd said he'd burnt down Vincent's home, but hadn't thought far enough ahead to have realized the likely impact on Sephiroth.

"It has to do with Eden, yes?" the younger man asked when he saw his older friend's expression.

"I think so. I also think he was right to destroy Jenova, because otherwise, we would all have suffered from its continued existence. Hojo will probably be done with you—at least, so extensively—very quickly. I just wish it hadn't happened at all," the other SOLDIER sighed.

"I do not blame you, or even Eden. (1) Some warning would have been nice, though," Sephiroth answered with a small shrug.

"Need a hand with anything today, Sephiroth?" Angeal asked, gaze concerned.

"I am—" the silver haired man began.

"Hey!" Zack grinned cheerfully, running up and clapping Angeal on the shoulder. "How's it going, Angeal? Here, take this," he said as he shoved another Mastered Materia into his mentor's hand.

"Calm down, Zack. Did you put less energy into the Materia last night?" the man asked in amusement, handing the Mastered Lightning to Genesis.

"No, not really. I just fell asleep between finishing one and starting the next," Zack answered, sitting between Genesis and Angeal. "So?"

With a small sigh, the black haired man looked at Sephiroth and said, "Get the Puppy to do any running you need today."

Sephiroth's brow raised as Zack protested, "Hey, stop calling me that! And anyway, why would the General need a Second to do anything? He's, like, super-strong, right?"

"...Are you seriously going to pass him off to me in my condition?" Sephiroth asked Angeal tiredly.

"Yes, Sephiroth, I'm passing him off to you so you can stay in your office and do something less active. Send him to deliver things, to retrieve things, to find people for you. I'm sure there's a lot he can help you with while you're recovering," the black haired man replied in amusement as Genesis chuckled.

"Wait, what's wrong with the General?" Zack asked in very real worry.

"I just spent all of yesterday with Hojo after he found out most of his life's work has been destroyed," the silver haired man answered quietly, and Zack first drew a blank—then his eyes widened.

"Then, it's true what Kunzel said, that he's a sadist?" the sixteen-year-old asked, looking uneasy. When Sephiroth nodded, he said, "Man, that sucks. I don't mind helping out, then. Just let me know what you need."

At first, the man seemed confused, but then he gave a small nod and said, "Thank you, then."

"So—" Zack began to say—only for Genesis' PHS to ring, alerting him to an incoming text message.

All eyes went to him as he frowned in confusion and pulled the device out, opened it, and checked his messages. "What?" he asked softly in confusion and distress as he read the message he'd just received.

"Genesis?" Sephiroth asked in concern.

The red haired young man just shook his head a bit, so the younger of the two frowned—and had a sudden flashback to his discussion with Vant and Anthony the night before. Drawing in a sharp breath, he reached over and grabbed the PHS from his friend's hand, feeling even more worried when the older man didn't try to grab it back. He turned it around to read the message, then pursed his lips before passing it on to Angeal, whose eyes widened as he read it.

"What's going on?" Zack asked in confusion as Angeal offered the phone back to the red haired man, who took it absently in a weak grip.

Genesis looked up at Sephiroth and asked, "What does this mean? Why is he—?"

Shaking his head, the silver haired man answered, "Remember when Eden said Hollander had mis-labeled you as a failure?" Zack's eyes widened in horror as Genesis slowly nodded.

"There's no way the Commander's a failure!" the younger man protested.

Sephiroth's eyes shifted to the black haired sixteen-year-old for a moment before going back to Genesis. "It means anyone who wants you can claim you—Deepground, or Hojo. Hollander gave up his rights to you when he labeled you that way, but until now, no one else wanted you. If this is just him taking out his anger on someone besides me because he has not sated it yet, or whether he knew anything about who and what Nero was, I cannot tell you—but Vant pointed out to me last night that...my blood is in your veins. Hojo _will_ find out, and the result...I have serious concerns about what he will do once he knows."

Slowly, Genesis nodded, then asked quietly, "There's no way around it, is there?"

"Unless the Director's willing to pull some strings to make it look like you left for a lengthy mission just before getting the message, no," Angeal said. "And all it would do is delay the inevitable. Hojo isn't known for changing his mind—he's decided to run some tests on you, so he _will_. If it was a few weeks later, he just may not be so vicious. Also, we'll both be due for tests with Hollander soon, and the new addition to both our blood will be noted then, regardless. I can't see that either of them will be happy to find out we were...changing the experiment's terms without telling them."

Pursing his lips, Genesis rose, checked the message one last time, and tucked his PHS away. "Then, I'd better get it over with."

"Your breakfast—" Angeal began in concern.

"The Puppy can eat it—I'm not hungry anymore," Genesis replied and walked out.

Could things have turned around so badly so quickly? The red haired man had to question that as he made his way down to Hojo's office, already knowing he was doomed no matter what he did. And maybe he'd bring Angeal down with him, something he absolutely didn't want to do. A little bit of blood, his life—maybe he would have been better off if he'd just let himself degenerate, and Angeal would have been safer, too. Then there was Sephiroth, who had provided the blood, and Hojo would be even more angry about that...

Then he dismissed the thought as irrelevant—not only could it not be fixed, but he wouldn't have wanted Angeal to die slowly any more than he had wanted to. In the end, they had made their own decision, knowing the data had been being kept from them for some reason, and were only now just seeing the full consequences of it. Was it worth the pain he'd be subjected to? A sudden thought of Shalua and Kariya made him think it just may have been worth it regardless, but he'd have to withhold judgment for the moment.

As he was approaching the unfamiliar office, he heard a familiar voice almost yell, "You don't have any right to order him to report to you for testing!"

"Would you like to take this up with the President, Hollander?" Hojo's voice calmly replied, and Genesis' first view of the two was to see a frightening smirk on the slender Doctor's face while the larger (rounder as well as taller) Doctor Hollander glared.

"That's irrelevant! What would you possibly gain from taking my own experimental subject from me?" Hollander asked in reply, still obviously angry.

"New testing material which will be quite durable," Hojo replied, still smirking. "Fact is, I can see a use for him, and I want to make use of what's already handy since it much simplifies matters."

"I want my experiment back, Hojo!" the larger man bit out sharply.

"Then you shouldn't have labeled me as a failure," Genesis cut in sharply in anger, making both look at him in surprise. "If you were really so 'possessive' of me, you'd never have done that—the only reason you want me _now_ is because someone else has taken an interest in me. Shinra's own rules say a 'failed' experiment is up for grabs by anyone unless the entire project was discontinued—you didn't care all the way through until now, so get over yourself. It's already too late, and I've already been 'sold' by the President—twice!"

Hollander's jaw fell open in shock as Hojo's eyes widened, but then Hojo snickered and said, "Looks like the very subject himself has spoken, Hollander. Now get out of my office and take care of your remaining subject."

Suddenly, the larger Doctor frowned and asked, "Hold on, how do you even _know_ any of that? You and Hewley were deliberately kept ignorant of your status as experimental subjects."

In his anger, Genesis bit out, "Oh, there's evidence of it to find, little clues here and there, so we're both aware of our 'status', and the results of it. In a way, you were preferable to Hojo, except my status never gave me any guarantee of safety, so now—this. The only thing I can be grateful for is that Sephiroth won't have to go through it all alone anymore, and maybe in the future, you'll be more cautious about how you label your experiments if you actually think you might want to keep them."

Hollander looked furious. There was no other way to describe his expression as he stormed from the office. Genesis just hoped Angeal could get away before Hollander called him in for a round of tests. In the meantime, Hojo's chuckling made the red haired man's shoulders slump as chills ran down his spine, his gaze slowly going to the other man as he tried to make his face unreadable. He didn't think he'd have the kind of skill Sephiroth had because he'd never needed to so completely hide his emotions before, but against Hojo, every little bit would help.

The doctor beckoned him into one of the rooms off the central office and told him to strip for the general physical. That part was essentially what he'd have gotten in virtually any doctor's office, but the blood sample Hojo took worried him all the same because he knew what was coming. He was left in the room to wait while the man took a look at the initial results of the blood test, and when he returned, Hojo looked—amused?

Somehow, that frightened him more than anger would have.

"How did you wind up with Sephiroth's blood in your system?" the man asked as he sat down in the doctor's chair.

At that point, Genesis figured he preferred to tell the truth, but only after asking warily, "What will you do to punish him?"

"Punish him?" Hojo asked, his amusement growing. "You and he may have just salvaged the majority of my hard work. Granted, there are some aspects I'll now never be able to test, but if what I'm seeing here holds true, I have a means of continuing the SOLDIER project—or Project S. Of course, your initial testing with me will not be pleasant, but this is a definite path I hadn't thought of before now. As such, how did this happen?"

After a pause, Genesis sighed and said, "I'd been noticing that my body wasn't regenerating at the rate it was supposed to, even using healing spells. It happened gradually, so I was only actively aware of it when it was taking over a minute for Cure to heal a needle prick." The revelation made Hojo's gaze become thoughtful, but he motioned for the younger man to continue, so he went on, "Someone I know did a bit of leg-work for me and found out the cells causing the problem weren't unique to me, but that Angeal and Sephiroth had them as well—and Sephiroth's were fully stable because they were live cells, not dead ones. As such, if Sephiroth became my donor, even an ounce of blood should have been enough to kick-start my own cells so I'd stop degenerating. I knew both you and Hollander would have refused to help me, so we sort of—went behind your backs to someone who would do the transfusion."

"And your cells have clearly stopped degenerating," Hojo finished off, and Genesis nodded. "In fact, there's no longer any sign they ever had been, other than in the records Hollander was keeping of your general health. I had expected your condition to be much worse based on those records, yet—while you show traces of Sephiroth's blood, there are distinct differences between his Jenova cells and yours. His may have made yours healthy, but they didn't replace your existing ones—it seems to be more along the lines of them having merged. Also, some of those cells, being much more free-moving than Sephiroth's, have shown signs of intensive activation. You have a concentration of them at your shoulder blades, creating small ridges there, in fact."

The comment made Genesis stiffen, then close his eyes as he asked, "You'll make this infinitely worse for me if I don't show you exactly what that's all about, won't you?"

"Of course. I would have to force that to come out or to activate, then, wouldn't I? Not that I would mind doing so. Difficult test subjects are my favorite kinds." The smirk in his voice was obvious.

Genesis already knew he was going to be in for a rough day, but he'd already somewhat lessened the blow—and, well, Hojo would find out by the end of the day, anyway. As such, he sighed as he slid off the doctor's examining table to stand a few feet in front of it, eyes still closed as he thought about the wing which had appeared the same day he fought Nero. He felt energy flowing and his body shifting to accommodate the wing—and had to give a tiny smile for a moment as he heard Hojo give a violent start which caused the chair to screech as it slid on the floor. He then just stood there, eyes closed, waiting for whatever the next blow would be.

Something brushed against the feathers, making him open his eyes in mild surprise, only to see Hojo running his fingers almost reverently over the dove-gray feathers. At first, the man sorted through them oddly gently, but as one feather came free in his hand, he examined the feather—then reached out to pluck another like it from the wing, which elicited a yelp of pain and surprise from the red haired man. Hojo examined the place the feather had been anchored, where a drop of blood had grown, then sorted through the feathers again until he found the much softer down feathers. He repeated the process of tugging one of those free harshly, but that time, the pain was so bad Genesis dropped to his knees as he clutched at his shoulder.

"Very interesting," Hojo commented thoughtfully, examining the two feathers he'd plucked. They were clean of blood, but the second feather had opened a veritable fountain of blood sliding down his wing. "Down feathers are significantly more damaging than the other kind when removed forcibly, though the fact that you have a wing at all is impressive. When did you acquire it? Can you use it to fly?"

Slowly, through the pain haze, the younger man figured out exactly what the man wanted him to answer, so he said quietly, "It first appeared when I—apparently didn't just Summon Alexander while fighting Nero in Mideel, I channeled Alexander through me. One wing of light appeared on my back, and the other was this one. I only know I can hover with it, but I never tried to fly with it and haven't used it since then."

"I see. Let us begin the real testing, then. Retract your wing," Hojo ordered.

Genesis tried to withdraw it—then gasped as he found it wasn't working. When he questioned his body as to why, he was directed by his own energies to the wound left by the down feather being plucked. The wound was closing, but hadn't sealed yet, so until it did, he couldn't withdraw the wing. The process had been oddly similar to how he 'looked' at the Materia arrays, which probably meant the Mako in his body was allowing him to find the answer to the question. Still, back to the situation at hand...

"I can't until the wound closes," he whispered.

When he heard a malicious chuckle, he knew he was going to spend the rest of the day in more agony than he'd first thought.

CA

"What the Hell?" a vaguely familiar voice exclaimed, drawing him slowly from deep in darkness. It echoed like he was in some kind of tunnel, hearing the voice from far away. "Where did that wing come from?" The voice sounded both panicked and puzzled.

"I was afraid something like this would happen," another voice sighed sadly. It was more familiar than the first, but he still couldn't place it yet. "You will need to carry him, and be careful of the wing."

"Ooo-kay..." the first voice agreed uncertainly, but then he felt agony searing across his body as he was being lifted and carried.

He didn't want to be touched! Even deep in the darkness, he tried to recoil, and the sound of a pained whine reached him. His own voice? The grip on him started to loosen, and that hurt just as much.

"Do not put him down, Zack!" the second voice snapped.

"But it's hurting him!" the first voice, whom he now knew was called Zack (where had he heard that name before?), answered, the hold on him freezing.

"So is just laying on the bench. We need to get him back to his room and take care of him, not leave him here because moving him will hurt," the second voice explained.

"Oh."

The grip tightened again, then they were moving. He had no idea how long the agony of motion continued, but he was truly relieved when they got somewhere and he was gently put down.

A third familiar voice asked, "So, it was as bad as you thought it would be, then?"

"And worse," the second voice agreed, sounding tired. "This is...If Genesis was familiar with such treatment, it would not be so bad now, but he is not. The effects and the pain are worsened by that fact, so...The condition I was in last night is comparatively much worse for him. Let us clean and change him."

"Yes, let's. Zack, can you get us some warm water?" the third voice asked.

"Sure thing!" Zack answered.

Not long after, he felt gentle, warm heat running over his body from two sources. As the heat ran over his body and the smell and feel of blood began to lessen, awareness started to return to him. When he thought back to the second and third voices, he realized they were Sephiroth's and Angeal's, and he now knew who Zack was. Tears filled his eyes and spilled over, causing the warm heat to stop—but he didn't want it to! In something like desperation, he blindly, weakly, lifted a hand, reaching out to them, to someone.

A hand gripped his questing one firmly, and he knew within moments that it was Sephiroth's. It was hard to tug on it, to draw the other man closer, but no matter how weak his attempts were, the silver haired man understood, moving closer and slipping an arm under his shoulders to pull him up, draw him against his body. Genesis wrapped his arms around his friend as well as he was able and surrendered to the desire, the urge, to cry. Sephiroth held him firmly as one of the warm heat sources from before returned to continue down his body. A warm cloth? He should have realized it sooner...

Finally, when it finished, he felt a second set of arms wrap around him, arms he recognized as Angeal's, and he gratefully accepted them. He managed to get one hand working enough to wind it tightly in Angeal's shirt, keeping the man there with him while he leaned on Sephiroth's shoulder to cry. Before then, he'd know things were unpleasant for Sephiroth, but he'd never known the true extent of it or what it actually felt like—and now, he was wondering how Sephiroth could be so kind to him after he had been so neglectful as a friend.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." he whispered.

"For what?" Sephiroth asked in pure puzzlement.

"I should have been doing this for you every time Hojo...I'm so sorry..." Genesis answered, still whispering.

Sighing, the man who held him asked oddly gently, "Did I ever say anything more than that my day had been rough whenever I went in for testing with Hojo?"

"No, but—"

"Genesis," Sephiroth cut him off softly. "Anything Eden told you does not count. You never saw the effects of what Hojo did, so you had no way of understanding what it meant to be at the mercy of a sadist. And I never told or showed you anything more than normal levels of exhaustion or pain before now. You are not at fault for not seeing what I deliberately never showed you. Also, I would never have wished for either you or Angeal to suffer like this, I would have gladly kept you blind and deaf to it."

"You've been alone this whole time!" the red haired man burst out.

A hand rested on the back of his head, gripping his hair to gently tip his head back, and the silver haired man softly said, "Open your eyes and look at me, Genesis."

Slowly, the older man opened Mako blue eyes and focused on green, glowing, slit-pupilled ones.

"Ever since I met you and Angeal, I have not been alone. Even without knowing what this was like, you both saved me," he said, gaze steady and grateful. "Thank you."

 **Notes:**

Again, I'm not going to describe the torture in detail when it really isn't important—the results and the reason for it are the important part, and this IS actually important for Genesis to experience and understand, otherwise there will be a rift between Shelke and her entire family, and Genesis wouldn't be anything like equipped to go get her back from Deepground if he didn't realize what he would be getting into (seeing or experiencing). Since this is literally the first time Genesis is being tortured, he's going to react much worse to it than Sephiroth did—combat injuries are on a completely different mental, and often physical, level from what Hojo did to him.

(1) No, Ed ISN'T at fault for what Hojo has chosen to do. I'm saying this because a reviewer in a much earlier chapter had a discussion with me where said reviewer placed blame for a result completely where it didn't belong, so—DON'T put the blame where it doesn't belong.

Ed took the actions he knew would stop Jenova because she was a greater threat than a human man, even one as cockeyed as Hojo, and no one FORCED Hojo to torture Sephiroth or Genesis. That falls squarely on HIM being a sadist looking for reasons to torture people, and if he didn't have this reason, he'd have invented some other one to torture someone else because that's the kind of person Hojo IS. If they weren't all trying to fix things without starting a civil war, several people would have taken Hojo down before this, and it was just circumstance and Hojo's choice making it turn out poorly.

Sephiroth (and Genesis, for that matter) knows very well what kind of person Hojo is, so I don't see him blaming Ed for anything except not warning him (which is too small of a point for him to bother being upset about after what his life has been like). I also don't see Genesis blaming Ed because he's already been sold by the President to Deepground—and that had absolutely no connection to Ed at all. As such, he knows Ed isn't in any way at fault for the actions of sadists with no moral compass.


	49. 48-Flowers in the Slums

Flowers in the Slums

Eden had been on edge all day and wasn't quite sure why, but when seven in the evening finally rolled around, he was ready to burst. It was the feeling he associated with people like Al, or Winry, or little Alicia being in danger, and there weren't many people in Gaia who he had such a bond with—Genesis, Rude, Vant, maybe Tseng. The one in the most danger was Genesis, but if Deepground had made a move, he'd know it by now because he'd have been called in regardless of a guard on Rufus. As such, the unknown source of the feeling was driving him insane.

When Tseng opened the door with Reno behind him, Ed immediately asked, "Okay, so who's in trouble today?" Rufus stared at the three in shock as Tseng pulled up short and Reno snorted. Dark Nation whined and went to Tseng to push his head under the Wutain's hand, which earned him a few pats from the man.

"That would be Genesis, unfortunately. Hojo took an interest in him," Tseng said after a moment. "Regardless, we have to go, so Reno will watch over Rufus until we get back."

"Right," the blond teen sighed, giving Reno a wave as he joined Tseng and the two left the room. As they were going, they heard a short exchange between Rufus and Reno.

"You think you can do half the job Eden can, Gambler (1)?" Rufus asked derisively.

"I'm only supposed ta keep you in one piece, not babysit you, yo," Reno answered with a laugh. "Go ahead and make my day! I like hunting down prey..."

Shaking his head as the door closed, Eden asked the Wutain beside him, "Are you sure Rufus won't kill Reno?"

"If Rufus _could_ kill him, the Turks would be better off without him," Tseng answered in faint amusement. "No, Reno is the better option because he actually doesn't take offense to much, at least not when he's working, so he'll keep his cool whatever Rufus pulls. Though the President's son will most likely get his ass handed to him regardless if he tries to attack Reno—Rufus has some of our training, but not nearly enough to be effective against one of our 'old hands'."

"I guess that makes sense."

They got to the elevator at that point, so stopped talking about anything until they were in the train station, where the Wutain said softly in his ear, "We're going below the Plate, to the Sector 5 Slums. Keep close once we're down there."

"Got it," Eden agreed softly, letting the older man lead the way onto the train.

Rather than stopping in one car in particular, they stopped in the segment between the cars, the doors closed on either side of them. They were silent until everyone had gotten on and the train had started moving, both leaning against walls opposite each other and beside the doors. There was less than half a foot of space between them.

"Okay, so, Genesis?" Eden asked just loud enough for the older man to hear him, lips barely moving.

"Veld sent Sephiroth a note around five thirty, just after Genesis was released from Hojo's tests," Tseng answered similarly, eyes drifting to one of the windows. "Angeal's protegee was helping Sephiroth out today, so they both went to collect the other man—apparently, when they got to him, he had a wing and was easily as much of a mess as the General had been the night before. After that, all I heard was that Angeal met them at Genesis' apartment, so he's being taken care of, but I know nothing about his condition."

"Damn, that's harsh..."

"Do you know where the wing came from?"

"Genesis said he first acquired it when fighting Nero, when he channeled Alexander in his attempt to modify the holy arrays to convert the void energy to holy energy. He managed the arrays, but one of the wings he sprouted was his own and the other was one of Alexander's. I don't know any more than that, but I'm sort of guessing it has something to do with the Jenova cells in him—if it was the Mako, people with wings would have appeared before now," the blond teen explained.

"Good point," Tseng commented, still looking outside. "You've never seriously seen the Slums, have you?"

"Only when we passed through when we arrived. But you know, I've seen 'slums' before, Tseng, and they don't change much. Walking around in clothes like this is a sure way to be noticed in them."

"Yes. But there are ways to avoid detection, and I plan on showing you some of them while we're going to and from her place."

"Training?" Eden asked in mild amusement.

"Normally, you would have gotten this in VR rooms, but you skipped your training phase entirely, and you'll need to know some of these things in real time—soon."

"I take it that's going to be your reason for taking me away from guard duty for the next few months?"

"It will," the black haired man agreed. "It's the easiest way to excuse you for a few hours as long as that's all it is—a few hours."

"But Veld didn't want us to start as Trainees?"

"No. That doesn't mean every bit of the training can just be done away with. The reason we can allow you to skip the Trainee phase is because the things I'm going to be teaching you aren't listed as requirements of being a Trainee, they're secondary lessons you would get unintentionally through training exercises. As I said, you'd learn this in the VR rooms—while working on a mission in a setting duplicating the Slums. Knowing your way around the Midgar Slums isn't something you can be graded on, and the things you _could_ be graded on you already knew better than most."

"Then I guess I get your point. Lead on, then."

They fell silent until they got off the train in the Sector 7 Slums, where Tseng led him towards what was commonly know as 'the Train Graveyard'. (2) Ed got a strange expression on his face when he realized there were wild Shinra Guard Hounds there and some real, honest-to-goodness ghosts, too! They weren't very strong, and it didn't take the pair long to get to Sector 6, where Wall Market was. In Wall Market, Tseng started showing him ways to move through shadows, and sometimes even crowds, without being 'seen', and pointed out some indicators all the Turks knew to get to rooftops. On the rooftops, they made their way through Sectors 6 and 5, only returning to the ground near an old house with a flower garden outside it.

"Flowers down here?" Eden asked curiously.

"Flowers grown and tended by the young lady we're meeting," Tseng answered, leading the way to the door and knocking.

It was opened a minute later by a fifteen-year-old girl with brown hair and bright green eyes. She was wearing a white and blue, horizontally striped dress and her hair was in a high ponytail held by a white ribbon (3), but she was clearly shocked by her visitors. After a moment, she frowned a bit and asked, "What do you want, Tseng? You know I won't go with you."

"I'm not here to talk with you about that, Aeris," the Wutain man answered. "May we come inside?"

After a silence, her gaze moved to Eden, who gave her a curious look, then she gave a small sigh and said, "Fine, come in." She moved back from the door as she called, "Mom, we have guests, so I'm going to put on tea!"

"All right, dear. I'll be down shortly!" an older woman called back from upstairs.

The house was a fair size, Eden noticed right away—there was space for a small, pantry-like room and a bathroom to one side, though the kitchen and dining room were combined and there was no living room. Upstairs was obviously at least one bedroom, given the absence of such a room on the main floor. Tseng pulled out a chair at the table and motioned Eden to do the same, so the blond shut the door and joined the older man at the table. The girl, Aeris, bustled around getting the kettle and tea ready, but was quiet while she did, as though waiting for something. Soon after, a dark brown haired woman in a green dress and white apron came downstairs and stopped to stare at the two men in shock for a moment before moving over to the table and sitting across from Tseng. She had no physical resemblance to her 'daughter' at all.

"I hope you're not here to ask her to return to Shinra again," the woman glared at the Wutain man.

"Actually, our topic of discussion has nothing to do with her returning—or not—to Shinra," Tseng answered with a small smile. "Also, I haven't had the opportunity to see my 'sister' in awhile, so this is mainly a social visit."

"Turks don't make social visits," the woman huffed.

"Mom..." Aeris sighed as she finished with the tea and brought cups to the table for everyone. "I would know it if they actually meant harm. It's just really strange for you to bring another Turk right to me, Tseng. How do you know he won't turn me in later?" She sat down across from Eden as she met the Wutain man's gaze questioningly.

"This is Eden, one of our newest members," Tseng said to the two women, and Aeris stared in amazement at the name. He then looked at the blond beside him and said, "These two ladies are Elmyra and Aeris Gainsborough." When the younger Turk gave a nod, he turned back to the two women and said, "Eden is systematically throwing Shinra into chaos with Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal, and Veld's approval—and even Reeve Tuesti's. He's not doing it by wrecking havoc or trying to blow up the Reactors, he's doing it by finding out information and making us aware of problems. There are a great many more of them than we realized. As to why he won't come back later to turn you over to Shinra—it's simply because he doesn't _care_. The 'mission' to recover you is a general mission, not one anyone can sign up for, and he won't do a kidnapping mission, anyway, nor will Veld make him."

Aeris' eyes moved to Eden as she asked, "If you don't care, why are you here?"

"I don't care, and this was Tseng's idea. I have several projects I'm working on which only a particular group of people are aware of, but he felt you'd be able to help me figure out the details of a few of them," Eden explained. "Reeve is working on making the Reactors more efficient so they take less energy from the Planet, but that by itself isn't enough to save us. It's a start, one which won't destroy the way of life people have come to rely on, but by itself, it's just not enough."

"Why have you joined Shinra if you feel that way? Wouldn't a band of eco-terrorists, or even just plain terrorists, have suited you better?" Elmyra asked with a puzzled frown.

"What does joining any particular group have to do with saving the world?" Eden asked with a raised brow. The two women traded puzzled looks, then turned back to him curiously, so he asked Tseng, "It's okay to speak freely here?"

"Absolutely," the Wutain man agreed with a nod. "I think you should start with Chaos and Omega, then your plans."

"Chaos and Omega?" Aeris asked in mixed confusion and alarm.

"What's the matter?" Tseng asked her in concern.

At first, she shook her head, then met his gaze for a long minute, her expression pained. Finally, she sighed and turned back to Eden as she said, "The Planet—talks to me. The Lifestream has a voice, and I can hear it, but it's not always easy to understand what it's saying. The names Chaos and Omega triggered fear and confusion in the Lifestream, but it recognized the names and has sort of explained them to me. Chaos is supposed to kill everything so all the remaining Lifestream can be sent to Omega, then Omega will gather it all and leave the Planet to find a new place to start life over, right?"

"Yes," Eden agreed, blinking in surprise. "The Planet talks to you? It's not just the Materia, but the Planet itself?"

"Yes," she agreed, then frowned a bit. "Materia don't talk to people..."

"They do to Eden," Tseng answered in faint amusement. "Though, they're rather forceful about it, so he runs the risk of being debilitated and effectively passing out when he touches one. On the other hand, the amount of knowledge he can gain from them is impressive enough to rival, maybe even exceed, Genesis'."

"We're about equal, but I'm coming from a different angle than he is, that's all," the blond shrugged. "And I could do without the debilitation, since that actually _did_ get me killed once, and it was only because I had Revive and Final Attack paired that I _didn't_ die then. But here's what the Planet didn't tell you about Chaos. There's a pool of something called 'stagnant Mako'. It's Mako formed by the emotions of people who died in mass destruction, who were killed in wars, who were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered—basically, it's formed by negative emotion. So that negative emotion doesn't taint the Lifestream, it gets allocated to the pool, a single outlet for the negativity—the same pool where Chaos forms."

Aeris' eyes widened and she asked breathlessly, "How do you know that?"

"A pair of scientists, Grimoire Valentine and Lucrecia Crescent, researched it and found the pool. They extracted Chaos from it and Doctor Crescent bound Chaos to a human man who is here in Midgar right now. He doesn't want to become Chaos, but if things keep going the way they are, that part of him will trigger anyway, because there won't be a choice anymore. The terrorists and eco-terrorists are creating just as much torture and unnecessary death as Shinra, and with every death, the closer we come to the end. Why would I join a group just as vile and with far less chance of actually fixing anything than Shinra has?" Eden asked dryly.

Shaking her head, the girl closed her eyes for a minute before slowly nodding. "The Lifestream agrees with you, and actually says to tell you, 'Thank you for destroying the Calamity from the Skies and for advocating for the good people who remain.' You've done a lot to help the Lifestream, I guess." She met his golden gaze again.

"I had to destroy Jenova—the Calamity from the Skies—to save Genesis, Sephiroth, and Angeal, and there's only one way to save a world—by saving its people," Eden answered simply. "I'm doing what I can because it needs to be done, but you can't save the world without saving its people, because the state of the people has a huge impact on the state of the world. When people suffer, so does the Planet, and when the Planet suffers, so do the people. Does she call herself Minerva, by the way?"

With a faint smile, Aeris gave a nod and said, "She does sometimes. Did you find that out yourself?"

"Genesis swears by Minerva, and even his Limit Break is a bloody mass judgment on any- and everyone in range—himself, his allies, his enemies, bystanders. He specifically calls on her to judge them as worthy or unworthy," the blond answered, brushing it off as simply a fact he was used to. "Apparently, though, the Summons all refer to Genesis and I as 'Sentinels'. Do you know if those are a branch of the Ancients?"

The brown haired girl closed her eyes again for a minute, then sighed and opened them with a small smile. "I'm the last of the Cetra. At least, the last one who can still hear the Planet speak. The Sentinels are one of the guardian clans of the Cetra Healers—which is what I am...You noticed the flowers outside, didn't you?"

"Tseng said you grew them," Eden nodded, then gave her a grin as she nodded back. "So, we were supposed to help and protect you, and you were supposed to heal the land. Sounds simple enough. This is the thing. We're working on taking out people who are sadists and torturers, both inside and outside Shinra, and Reeve is already working on what can be done with the current Reactors. We need a substitute for the current power supply, something which won't destroy the world, and we need to find a way to _put energy back_ into the Planet or all we've done is gained some time and fixed nothing. Any thoughts on that?"

Aeris sat tapping her chin with one finger for awhile as Elmyra commented, "This is a pretty heavy conversation for a social visit, Tseng."

"It needs to be done, though, and Eden is our best chance to make a difference at the moment. He's got the mind to do it, that's for sure. A good part of what he's already figured out is through the Elder at Cosmo Canyon, for example," Tseng informed her. "And he somehow dragged us all along for this crazy ride."

"What does 'advocating for the good people' mean?" the woman asked.

"I encountered a Weapon whose purpose is to kill off the excess of populations which have gotten too large to sustain," the blond told her, making her eyes widen in horror. "I've convinced three of the five parts it was severed into not to kill everyone right away, to wait and watch and see what those people choose to do. Also, I had them classify the remaining Jenova cells as regular people, not as pieces of the Calamity needing to be terminated. In that way, when I restore it back to its full form, it'll have every right to kill the greedy and power-hungry who want to destroy everything around them or just don't care that they are, but it won't kill the good people who are trying to fix things—like Aeris, you, the people in Cosmo Canyon, Reeve, and so on. That's what I advocated to the maintenance Weapon. Well, things may not turn out exactly that way, but it gives us a better chance the way I've done it."

"And Minerva thinks very highly of a Sentinel who can maintain that balance," Aeris put in, making all eyes go to her. "Thank you for protecting us, by the way. I don't know anything about another power source, but the Lifestream told me Materia are essentially its back-up batteries. Normally, that energy would only have to return to the Planet after thousands of years, but things have turned in a direction where they need to be returned sooner instead of later. It's hard to explain, because the Lifestream energy is the main energy source of this world, but she says she's not the 'only' source anymore, then showed me an image of people and animals eating."

For a moment, Eden paused in confusion, then his eyes widened in realization. "We produce an energy apart from the Lifestream's energy, even though the base of our bodies are built with Lifestream energy. It's the energy which is produced by our bodies, for our bodies, which powers the Materia and allows them to grow until they reach a Mastered state, then they sever parts of themselves of their own accord, but still using entirely their own energy. That means each shard of Materia which was the result of first Mastering is _energy in addition to the Lifestream's_ , and the Lifestream never had it in the first place. If all of that excess energy could be returned to the Planet—!" He then paused and slumped. "But the Summons said it takes _aeons_ for them to deteriorate enough to return to the Planet..."

"Normally," the brown haired girl agreed, looking amazed. "But the Lifestream said, 'energy put in can be taken out again.' I think she meant forcibly. And she said she'd appreciate you not returning the Summons, but you can return other kinds which aren't sentient."

The sixteen-year-old's gaze went blank as the thought about the words, but Tseng checked the time and said, "We're not expected back for awhile, so maybe we should turn this into a more general and cheerful visit?"

Aeris looked up at the Wutain man and smiled as she said, "This hasn't been a bad or depressing social visit, Tseng. Actually, it's been a very good one, and I understand now why you wanted me to meet Eden. If I ever need help and you're not around to lend a hand, I'll go to him—and actually, I'd probably be safe with the Commander, too. He's also a Sentinel, and if he can be repeatedly judged as worthy by the Goddess, he'll bend over backwards to protect me. It's good to know I have other allies in Shinra."

"More than you realize," he answered with a small smile. "You'd be surprised how many people would help you if you allowed them to."

"Owing Shinra anything is dangerous," Elmyra glared, then looked at Eden. "You were tricked into joining, weren't you?"

"No. I'm not that easy to trick," the blond chuckled. "I found as much data as I could, both what's been manipulated by Shinra and what hasn't, and made my decision after that. I'm sure Veld would have been put out if I hadn't joined, because he's been very—lenient—with me from the start, but I came to the conclusion for myself that the only way to get the resources and good minds working on problems was through Shinra. They have all the best minds and control the money. Working as a Turk means I also have access to funds and research materials I wouldn't have otherwise, which means I'll be able to continue my independent research. Also, Shinra caused the problem, so it's only fitting that we force them to fix it by making it beneficial to them to do so from right inside their own company."

Aeris started giggling as Elmyra stared at him in amazement and Tseng's lips twitched. "So, you see—he's taking us along for a very interesting ride," the Wutain added, quickly taking a sip of tea to hide a smile.

"No one has ever presented it that way before, but it's a good point," Aeris said as she finished her round of giggles. "That it's actually working is something else."

"Genesis has helped greatly in that," Ed shrugged. "Since you're actually a full-on Cetra, not someone guessing at things, am I right to say the so-called 'Promised Land' Shinra is after actually refers to the dead returning to the Lifestream?"

The girl blinked, then nodded. "As far as I can tell, yes. There's no higher honor than to return to it, because we don't actually 'die' when we return to it, we just return to an energy form, reunite with our Goddess and Mother, and come to a time of rest and peace. Why Shinra doesn't see that for themselves, I don't know."

"As Angeal said, it's simple greed," the blond answered, and she sighed sadly.

They went on to other discussions until the pair had to leave, about an hour later.

 **Notes:**

(1) Reno is another word for gambler, so Rufus is really just being an ass—something I can totally see him doing at this point.

(2) This 'Train Graveyard' is smaller than the one in the FFVII main game, only about half the size, because it hasn't been there nearly as long—as such, it doesn't take long to pass through. It's also better organized and isn't creating barriers to their progress.

(3) I figured she'd be more accurately described by the way she looked when Zack first met her in Crisis Core (before he gave her the pink ribbon and she started wearing pink) rather than the way she looked in the FFVII main game. After all, he hasn't met her yet.


	50. 49-New Ally

New Ally

Genesis woke in the morning to the feeling of two other warm bodies wrapped around him, holding him tightly. (1) The pain had mostly subsided and his body seemed functional again, but he knew himself that something had changed in him after what Hojo had done to him. No matter what Sephiroth said, he couldn't banish the guilt of having never noticed or supported the younger man through the suffering he'd endured, but that was only a small part of the change. Hollander had been intrusive, but not overtly cruel for the sake of being cruel, whereas Hojo had been both intrusive and cruel. He'd never thought much of Hollander's examinations, and they hadn't meant much to him or his well-being—they certainly hadn't felt like a violation, despite having sometimes caused pain and often discomfort (2).

If Sephiroth was violated frequently that way, it wasn't a wonder the man was so closed off and gave the impression that he had no feelings. Rather, he had them, but they were kept so tightly hidden so close to his heart that very few would ever see those feelings—Genesis and Angeal were the only ones he knew who had ever seen more than his polite face. Maybe Vant had seen some of that, too, given how well the father and son had taken to each other. Anthony's behavior also made a lot more sense, considering he'd very plainly said Deepground's people were the abusive sort.

The thought of Deepground made him stiffen in fear and draw in a sharp breath as his mind whirled with the implications. He'd spent a day of Hell with Hojo, and it was fairly safe to say that Deepground had full access to the notes and records people like Hollander and Hojo kept. His wing and the inclusion of Sephiroth's blood in his were now likely known to them as well, but they were also sadists and had taken their cues from Hojo. As he knew they were after him, there was a strong likelihood they'd do the same thing to him when they _did_ get him—maybe worse after getting back the report of Weiss and the Restrictors' defeat, apparently at his hands.

And to take it one step further—what he'd just gone through was what Shelke, his nine-year-old sister, had been going through for months already!

His vision started going black—

"Genesis! Breathe! Genesis!" a familiar voice called urgently, and his eyes focused on the two men looking down at him with worry all over their faces.

All at once, he realized his body was begging for air, so drew in a deep breath, slowly released it, and drew in another. Why did he have to think about breathing? He wondered vaguely about that as the darkness receded and he closed his eyes to focus on just breathing in and out. Finally, he was able to stop thinking about it as his body took over the function naturally again, and his eyes opened slowly to see Sephiroth still leaning over him, rubbing one of his arms and Angeal sitting back a bit as he gripped the smaller man's shoulder.

"Okay now?" the black haired man asked in concern.

"...I think so," Genesis murmured. "Physically, at least." His gaze moved to the silver haired man as he asked, "You had an ache yesterday, too, didn't you?"

"For a good part of the day. It was only this morning when I woke up that it was gone completely," Sephiroth answered. "But your breath did not stop because of that."

Opening his mouth to deny the statement, Genesis stopped and closed it again, knowing Sephiroth wasn't someone he could convince of that fact. Finally, after a minute, he said, "I was thinking and didn't realize I had stopped."

The other two traded worried looks, then Angeal looked back at him and asked, "What were you thinking about, then?"

His eyes closed for a moment, then he opened them again—and wondered why Sephiroth and Angeal looked alarmed when he did. Still, slowly, he explained, "This is the first time I've felt that kind of pain, that...violation. Up until now, I knew Deepground were horrible people who liked to hurt others, and that they had to be stopped—and I had to rescue my sister from them because they were torturing and experimenting on her. I never understood what that _meant_ , how it _felt_...But I understand it now, what it will mean for me to be taken down there, even for a short time, what it's meant for her in the last three months...Hojo tortures intermittently, but they do it all the time. I don't know if I'll even be able to handle this again at Hojo's hands..."

"Deepground, I cannot say anything about," Sephiroth sighed. "We all know what they are like, so you are likely correct about the horror even a few hours would be. As for Hojo, if he has decided to keep you on, now that he has done the initial tests there is a good chance he will never do anything so horrible again, and that only about once a month. Well, assuming no one destroys all his research again, you will never encounter this same degree of suffering from him again. As for surviving—unless you commit suicide, you will survive and 'get through it', just like I have, just like countless other experimental subjects have. Do not forget, we will be here to help you through it."

With a sigh, Genesis slowly sat up and—some impulse made him hug the two of them as he said, "Thank you." He then let them go and looked at Sephiroth as he asked, "Will you...come to us when you're hurting? Please?"

The silver haired man blinked, then gave him a small smile and a nod. "In a way, I always was. The only difference now is that you actually know what it means. I have learned to deal with this, but it is new to you so it is also much harder on you, just to try to determine how to return to living like a normal person. It is the same problem Anthony and Vant have, too—though in Anthony's case, he never knew how a normal person lived. We will always have each other, yes?"

Angeal gripped both their shoulders firmly as he said with conviction, "Absolutely."

It was only then when Genesis looked down at his bare legs—and realized he wasn't wearing anything. A faint blush came to his face as he asked, "As touching as all this is, could I have some privacy to get dressed?"

Sephiroth and Angeal both blinked, then chuckled and rose as the black haired man said, "I guess we fell asleep when you got clingy last night. We'll wait in the main room."

As they reached the door, Genesis said, "Thanks...for staying."

"Of course," Sephiroth answered as he gave a wave over his shoulder.

Alone in the room, Genesis sighed and ran a hand through his hair, then actively looked around at himself and the room. There were feathers scattered around the room, but his wing had vanished sometime during the night, and there was some blood on his sheets, but most of it had been confined to the water pail and two cloths hanging over the rim of it which sat on the nightstand across the bed. His clothes were clean and had been thrown down on the end of the bed, and the bloody hospital gown he'd worn for most of the day while in Hojo's office lay in a heap on the floor not far from where he'd put his feet down. Most of the blood had been cleaned off him, but it hadn't been a perfect job, and he was sure some of the blood that had gotten on his sheets had migrated back to his body.

Slowly pushing himself to his feet, he gathered some clean clothes and went to his bathroom to wash properly. Before dressing, he paused to examine himself in the mirror, at first not seeing anything different about himself beyond a few faint scars he was sure hadn't been there before. Until he met his own gaze and found it to be dull and somewhat glassy, a difficult feat for glowing, Mako eyes.

Closing his eyes, he gave himself a shake and sighed as he tried to look forward to the day—he wanted to check up on Shalua, and it was the Academy's day off, so she'd probably be at home. The thought made him smile, and when he opened his eyes again, they looked more alive, a mix of happy and sad. Hojo hadn't asked him to return for awhile as he needed time to thoroughly study the results, but he still didn't much feel like staying at Headquarters on principle. At least the thought of being away from Shinra and seeing Shalua again had brought the expression back to his eyes.

Dressing and finishing his morning routine, he stepped out of his personal bathroom and crossed through his bedroom, deliberately ignoring the bloody sheets and gown. When he stepped out into the main room of his apartment, Angeal and Sephiroth were sitting in the main room with drinks, but when they saw him, they rose.

"Since you don't keep food here, we'll have to go to the cafeteria," Angeal said. "Or one of our places so we can make something. It's your choice."

For a minute, he looked between his two best friends, considering both options. Finally, he said, "I don't think it's a good idea for me to start hiding—I'll wind up doing myself more harm than good. When it was Hollander, I always went to the cafeteria anyway, so it's better for me to keep doing it. Also, I had already planned to visit Shalua today, so I'd like to still do that. If I can't even face the cafeteria, how will I make it to her apartment in Sector 4?"

The two traded looks, then nodded as Angeal gave a small smile and said, "Let's go, then. Just let us know if you need anything."

"I think you may want to just sit down and let one of us grab you a meal," Sephiroth added as he led the way to the door.

"You didn't," Genesis said, the other man's words reminding him of the residual pain of the testing which was making his muscles smart.

"I am used to pain, Genesis. My pain tolerance threshold is much higher than yours, not because of anything in our genetics, but because I have spent a large part of my life in pain, so all pain causes less reaction in me than in others. What you feel right now is more than double what I felt."

Those words made Genesis pull up short mid-step, causing him to stumble and almost fall—and Angeal quickly jumped to his side to catch him. When Genesis was on his feet properly again, he could see Sephiroth by the door and looking faintly amused. "I see," he said at last, and the younger man nodded. "I'll sit down, then."

"Good," the General agreed, opening the door and leading the way outside. He then stopped and said, "You are here awfully early, Zack."

As the two Commanders stepped into the hall, the black haired sixteen-year-old said, "Well, I couldn't just pretend it didn't happen, so I came to check up on things." His Mako-blue eyes moved to Genesis as he said, "You look better, Commander Rhapsodos. How are you feeling?"

The red haired man blinked, then admitted, "Sore. Recovering, though."

Zack rubbed the back of his head in something like uncertainty, then said, "It's probably not my business, but was Hojo the reason for your wing?"

Sighing, Genesis shook his head slowly and said, "It had been the result of experiments done before I was born, and I'd already been aware of it. Hojo just turned it into a new form of torture, one I really could have done without. Though, either way, he would have tortured me into showing them, then done all the rest anyway, so doing it the way I did meant I skipped part of it."

Zack looked horrified and pale at the words, but Sephiroth snorted and said, "Yes, he hates cooperative subjects, mainly because even the President will not let him needlessly torture someone in the main SOLDIER program."

"Oh, that's horrible—but wait!" Zack suddenly gasped, eyes wide. "Does that mean there's another part of SOLDIER?"

The other three traded looks, then Angeal said, "Let's go to the cafeteria. That discussion isn't the type to have in public, so we'll have to discuss it privately later."

"Oh, okay," the teenager agreed, then pulled two Materia orbs from his pocket. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I wound up finishing Ice and Earth (3)." He offered them to Angeal, but let Genesis take them instead when the man reached out for them.

"You're certainly making good progress on them," Genesis said in mild amusement as the four headed for the cafeteria.

"It's actually kind of fun, and really amazing to actually see them reproduce," Zack chuckled. "Can I help you out today if Angeal doesn't need me?"

"I wasn't staying at Shinra today," the red haired man replied.

When Zack looked at Angeal in alarm, the black haired man said, "His sister lives in Sector 4. He was going to visit her."

"Ooooh...Can he walk that far alone? Even Sephiroth had trouble going any distance yesterday, so...Sector 4's pretty far..." the younger man pointed out.

They had just reached the cafeteria floor and were in the lobby section when a voice came to them clearly, a haughty, angry voice saying, "I told you, I have a meeting and you aren't invited!"

Another voice which sounded amused replied, "Too bad. Either I go with you or you get your ass handed to you."

All four of their eyes focused on the two blond young men in the middle of the room, where the short haired one in a white suit with a long jacket and the long haired one in the black Turks' uniform stood facing each other about three feet apart. Genesis actually started snickering as Zack just stared in confusion, Angeal scratched his head and looked bemused, and Sephiroth sighed and held a hand to his head as he felt a headache coming on. Many others around the foyer were staring at them in shocked amazement as they listened intently to the argument.

"I have every right to demand privacy! My father will have you punished for refusing and disobeying direct orders!" the older blond bit out, a cold glint in his blue eyes.

The Turk replied with a smirk, "Sorry, but _your father_ wanted me to keep you in one piece, and even gave me permission to _spank_ you if you got out of line. I doubt he'd retract his word now." Nearly everyone there was so shocked by the words their jaws fell open and their eyes widened comically—but Genesis' chuckles became a full-on laugh which brought tears to his eyes both from amusement and from pain.

"What are you laughing at?" the blond in white asked as he stalked over to the group, eyes flashing to Sephiroth (who just shrugged) for a moment before he focused on Genesis again.

"Genesis! How are you feeling?" the Turk asked as he joined them, his golden gaze worried.

When the older man stopped laughing, he said, "I needed that. Thanks, Eden."

"I wasn't doing it for entertainment value," Eden replied dryly, then looked at his charge in white, who had a thoughtful expression on his face. "Oh, no, that look worries me. What are you up to, Rufus?"

"Hey, would someone please fill me in?" Zack asked plaintively, making all eyes go to him and his confused expression.

The blond in the white suit huffed a small chuckle at the question, then looked at Sephiroth with a raised brow, so the man said, "This is Rufus Shinra, the President's son, and Eden of the Turks, who has apparently been made his guard." His gaze then went to Rufus as he said, "May I formally introduce to you Commanders Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley, and Angeal's new protegee, Second Zack Fair?"

"Well met," Rufus said, gaze still thoughtful as he eyed Genesis.

"Oh, the President's son—eats in the cafeteria?" Zack asked in amazement.

"Not normally, but he wanted a change of scenery today," Eden shrugged. His gaze went to the red haired man as he asked again, "But are you okay, Genesis?"

"Why are you even asking?" Angeal asked in puzzlement. "I know you're good at finding things out, Eden, but—this is just strange."

"Not when he felt something wrong all day yesterday, only to ask Tseng last night who was 'in trouble this time' when the Wutain came to retrieve him for a jaunt," Rufus said dryly. "Apparently, you're very high on the Turks' watch list for some reason, Commander Rhapsodos, because Tseng knew exactly what was wrong. I just didn't have the luxury of finding out details."

The red haired man's lips quirked as he gave a small bow. "I'm somewhat honored that you're even remotely curious about the situation, young Mr. Shinra. Yes, I'm high on the Turks' watch list, mainly so they can try to keep me out of trouble if I accidentally get dragged into any more of their cases. As Tseng said—what am I up to now? Five, I think? Anyway, of their recent cases, I've gotten dragged into almost all of them."

Rufus' brow rose at that and he looked the man up and down for a minute before saying, "You look like you need to sit." He motioned at the cafeteria as he said, "Shall we?" Without waiting for an answer, the blond eighteen-year-old turned and walked into the cafeteria, Eden following him quickly and beckoning the other four to follow.

When the President's son seated himself at a table for six, it was clear he expected all of them to join him, so the others found seats as Eden took one of the chairs next to Rufus. Sephiroth was to Rufus' other side, Zack was beside him, and Angeal had taken the next seat, leaving the one beside Eden for Genesis. Before any of them could say anything about the lack of food, they all found themselves being handed trays filled to overflowing—something Zack was obviously pleased about as he dug in. The others also started out eating, but they all noted how Genesis didn't eat much.

"Surely a SOLDIER eats more than that," Rufus said to Genesis, who blinked and looked down at the remains of his meal before making a face and pushing it away.

"Hojo is a sadist. Unfortunately, I've eaten what I can stomach for now, though I should be back to normal tomorrow," the red haired man told the President's son, and was surprised when he frowned.

"That's odd..." he murmured.

"What is?" Eden asked his charge in mild concern. The look Rufus gave him made him shrug and say softly, "All the Turks know you're the one who let the terrorists into Midgar. It's only fair the leaders of SOLDIER know what you're up to as well—as far as that goes, _they_ know more about the situation than _you_ do."

The words produced sighs from Sephiroth and Angeal and a chuckle from Genesis as he said, "So that's why it was so easy for them." Everyone took their cue from Eden and kept their voices low.

Zack just stared for a minute before asking, "Isn't anyone bothered by this?"

"Not nearly as much as by Hojo," Sephiroth replied, and Rufus raised a brow.

"General Sephiroth, forgive me if this is a rather personal question, but I had been under the impression that Hojo was a good doctor, yet your opinion seems very different from what I'd been told," Rufus commented.

The silver haired man replied, "That depends on who told you and on your definition of 'good'. As a scientist, he is half-baked at best, and as a doctor, he is a sadist. There is no other word for him, because he _enjoys_ causing others pain, seeing them writhe in agony or hearing them scream. He has always been that way. The only thing he can be credited for is the current status of the SOLDIER program, which I was the prototype for. He has now added Genesis to his experimental subject list, and because that happened effectively as a result of him losing decades of research, he did not hold back and was able to use the excuse of recovering his data and complete testing of a new subject. He had only just tortured me the day before for the same reason."

Rufus sat back suddenly like he'd been struck, then turned to look at Eden, who nodded. After a silence, he released a deep breath and said, "Well, that certainly puts a—very harmful spin on things."

"In what way?" Angeal asked in concern.

"What I knew of Hojo was from my father or Fuhito of AVALANCHE. Both spoke highly of him, and Fuhito in particular reveres him as the essence of science and how it should be done," Rufus informed them, and saw them all pale. "He has since left AVALANCHE to strike out on his own, as the other two leaders of sorts of the group no longer share his method or ideal. Had I not learned this, I may even have continued to fund him alongside AVALANCHE, but...What do you suppose will come of him acting independently of others?"

"He'll create a monster army," Sephiroth said simply, looking tired.

"And we really should stop discussing this here," Genesis said, gaze across the room and rather unfocused. The others looked to see Hojo at the doors, scanning the room for someone—and all of them traded looks before Sephiroth and Angeal pushed themselves to their feet.

"We'd better go anyway," Angeal said. "Unfortunately, I can't let you borrow Zack today, Genesis—I had already scheduled training with him which can't be put off."

"I have paperwork to finish before some training with the other Firsts," Sephiroth added, and they both left the table, making Zack jump up and scramble after Angeal.

"...Should I ask?" Rufus asked.

The red haired man shook his head and said, "I really need to get away from all this crap. I'm going to see Shalua."

"Who?" the man asked in confusion as the Commander rose, and Rufus caught his wrist to keep him there.

"...My sister. She lives in Sector 4," Genesis answered.

Rufus made an instant decision and rose as he said, "I'm going with you. In exchange, you're coming with me to meet Elfé. And Eden will join us, of course."

At first, Genesis just stared, then sighed and nodded, so the three headed for the exit, noting how Angeal and Zack had stopped to speak with Hojo.

 **Notes:**

(1) No, nothing happened, they just slept. At best, this could be considered 'bromance', since there's absolutely no romantic intent here—Sephiroth and Angeal are just staying with him because they know he needs them to be there right then. I would like to think people who cared about others who had just gone through such an experience would stay, especially if the victim was still willing to accept their touch—something actually quite rare for torture and abuse victims. This is just showing how close the three still are and the trust they have for one another, regardless of their independent families popping up—and Angeal is still firmly part of _their_ family.

(2) Some people may assume this 'violation' refers to rape or something similar. To be clear on this, no, nothing 'like' rape took place (at least Hojo only seems to be interested in sexual interactions with fully adult women). This doesn't make the treatment he got during the testing any less of a violation, because there was nothing nice about it.

(3) For Zack to have handed a Mastered Ice and Earth to Genesis, he had to have Mastered his own set and the new pair so he still had the new baby Materia to work from. This is Equivalent to 3-4-ish Materia Mastered in one night. And he slept a bit, too, but has so much energy he NEEDS comparatively less sleep than the average person. Of course, that isn't to say he doesn't enjoy his occasional long rests, either! :D


	51. 50-Details

Details

As it turned out, it took some time to get to Shalua's place because Genesis had to keep stopping to rest. Rufus seemed to be oddly sensitive to that need, even though the Commander never said anything about needing or wanting to stop, making Eden raise a brow every time the older blond insisted they stop so he could look at something or enjoy a drink at a cafe. By the time they got to the apartment, Genesis even looked a little amused, as he'd also noticed the trend, so led the way up to the apartment, feeling better about having the President's son in contact with Shalua.

Knocking on the door, he pushed it open—and saw an exasperated Shalua come around the corner as snarling sounded from the living room. The two blonds followed him in as he asked, "Should I be worried?"

"No. It's just Anthony and Elena trying to one-up each other again," Shalua answered, then asked, "Who's the other guy?" She was dressed in a burgundy and purple skirt with a top mainly in burgundy with purple and yellow designs on it.

"You usually recognize everyone in Shinra," he commented teasingly, so she stuck her tongue out at him. "Who's Elena?"

"The tape recorder girl," she said.

"Oh..." For the life of him, the red haired man hadn't been expecting that, as he'd been under the impression the other girl was a very new acquaintance. "Why are they apparently competing at all?"

"Because Anthony is in all the same classes as her, and they're vying for the top spot. She likes me better because she's sort of my personal teacher with a gun, so it's really obvious I'm not skilled enough to worry her. At least him joining the classes got her to stay in the ranged class, because she's actually a really good teacher, and I wouldn't learn nearly as much if I was paired with someone else. Now, who's that guy?"

"I see. This is Rufus Shinra, the President's son."

"Doesn't she need another introduction as well?" Rufus asked dryly.

"No, she already knows Eden," Genesis shrugged, then headed for the living room.

He looked around the room, seeing something which resembled the wreckage of a hurricane while a blond girl fought over possession of a shuriken with Anthony. The fourteen-year-old girl, presumably Elena, had brown eyes and her long hair mostly in high pigtails while she had bangs, some longer to the right side of her face. While Shalua was dressed in street clothes, Anthony and Elena wore the Academy uniform, a black skirt or pants with a white, sailor-style shirt with black hems and a red sweater or suit jacket. Cait Sith was sitting on the edge of the coffee table they were fighting over the shuriken above, chuckling as he watched them.

"Interesting," Genesis commented dryly, crossing his arms. They both started and looked up at him—and he was surprised to see Anthony drop the shuriken.

"Sorry..." the boy said with a faint blush, then looked at him with a small frown and asked, "Are you okay, Genesis? You look...sick." He then paused and his eyes widened as he said quietly, "You look like Sephiroth did the night before last..."

"Okay, now I'm thoroughly confused," Rufus put in with a glare. "What is one of Reeve's robots doing here, why does that boy know anything about Sephiroth, and _how_ many completely random people do you apparently know, Commander?"

"Hey, I can ask the same thing! I knew the Commander was Shalua's brother, but who are all these other people, and why does Anthony know anything about the General?" Elena asked with a glare of her own, brown eyes suspicious.

Eden just stood leaning against the table and chuckling, shaking his head as he considered how things looked from outsiders' perspectives—like Rufus and Elena.

"Laddy, what's a Turk doin' here?" Cait Sith asked, seeing Eden.

"Everyone sit down," Genesis said, then looked at Shalua and Anthony as he asked, "How trust-worthy do you think Elena is?"

"Very, if she stops acting like a tape recorder," Shalua answered.

"Really?" he asked with a raised brow.

"She's trying to be a Turk, remember?" the red haired girl answered.

"I actually think so, too," Anthony added, and Elena looked at him sharply.

"You hate me!" she declared. "Why would you say I'm trustworthy? Anyway, maybe I won't be a Turk now that my sister was chosen and I wasn't!"

"Trust and hate aren't exclusive," Eden put it, making the others look at him curiously. "I knew a man who—actually tried to kill me once. But, when it came right down to it, even though we hated each other, he was way more honorable than the people I should have been able to trust. When I had to make a choice, I put my back to him before to them, because I knew he wouldn't stick a knife in my back." (1)

"You know some interesting people, in that case," Rufus snorted, and Eden gave him an amused smile.

Meanwhile, Genesis asked the blond girl, his brow raised, "Did you just say you'd rather give up on _your_ dreams just because a woman three years older than you was chosen before you—rather than working harder to reach your own goal?"

A long silence followed the words before Elena frowned in puzzlement and said, "But, if she was already chosen, then—they don't want me anyway."

"I find that unlikely, and their greatest deterrent to taking you is likely your habit of repeating orders to all and sundry," Genesis replied in a rather dry tone. "You're young. Just because you weren't chosen at fourteen doesn't mean you won't be at fifteen, sixteen, or eighteen. The Turks need to see a level of maturity and mental dexterity you haven't shown them yet, despite your physical skills. Fix those things and they'd probably take you before you graduated. Which still doesn't explain why you'd give up on your own dreams just because you didn't get them at all of fourteen years old."

The girl's expression became a ponderous sort of frown like she was thinking very hard about the point, but she said nothing further.

At that moment, Rufus gave Genesis a push towards the nearest couch and said, "Sit down before you fall over, Commander."

Looking entirely bemused, the red haired man plopped himself down on the sofa, only to find Cait Sith scrambling into his lap, so he obediently started petting the robot. Shalua plopped down beside him and reached over to pet the cat, too, and Cait Sith started purring.

"...I had no idea a robot could purr, cat-shaped or not," the short haired blond said as he frowned at Cait Sith.

"He's a hedonist. What can I say?" Genesis asked in amusement. "That's actually why Reeve agreed to let him stay with Shalua. And Anthony now as well. Anyway, the young lady is apparently named Elena—"

"Elena Emerio! I'm Mr. Emerio's younger daughter—he teaches the ranged weapons class," Elena filled in, though her expression was a little upset.

The red haired man's brow rose, then he nodded and said, "Thank you, Elena." When she gave a small nod, he went on, "Anthony is—one of the Turks' son, and Shalua is my sister. This Turk is Eden, who was assigned to guard duty on this young man, Rufus Shinra, President Shinra's son."

The others all found places to sit as Rufus asked, "So how does Sephiroth fit together with Anthony?"

Eden snorted at that and asked, "Seriously? Everyone seems to forget the group of us who met up in Costa del Sol just this last month. Anthony and his father joined us there, and he and Sephiroth hit it off, especially when the SOLDIERs found out Anthony wanted to try for SOLDIER, himself. They stay in touch because of it."

Rufus' brows rose before he nodded. "Anthony must be highly skilled for Sephiroth to have such an interest. That being the case, why has he not yet applied directly to SOLDIER?" the blond man in white asked, gaze on Eden.

"Anthony spent most of his childhood sick," Eden answered in amusement. "He's recovering now, but still needs a little time to build up his strength."

"I still feel strange hearing about my childhood being talked about like that—like it didn't really mean anything," Anthony commented, gaze amused as well.

With that question answered, Elena looked at Eden in something like puzzlement. "And how does—Eden—fit in? Besides as Mr. Shinra's guard? Because I don't believe that's all his purpose is, or he'd have let Anthony or the Commander answer the question."

All eyes went to the Turk, so he blinked, then shrugged and said, "I'm a crusader trying to save the world and the people living on it, and I'm taking everyone I can along for the ride. Simple enough for you?"

Silence followed the words for a minute before they were suddenly all laughing until they cried, even Rufus (which was extremely rare for him) and Cait Sith—who was laughing with a deeper voice than the cat's own. Reeve had joined the discussion just in time to hear the comment, though only Genesis and Shalua actively recognized the change and chose not to mention it.

"Is that really it?" Rufus asked when he had gotten his laughter under control.

"What other reason would I have?" Eden asked curiously.

"Say, family killed by Shinra, a livelihood destroyed by the Reactors, a friend tortured by Hojo, and the list goes on," the other blond man replied, his brow raised.

"Yeah. If I had those. The closest I come is whatever's happened to Sephiroth, Genesis or my friends in the Turks," the younger of the two answered, gold eyes even and calm. "I don't have any ties, and that was through no fault of Shinra's or anyone else's. Since I needed something to do with my life, this is what I chose. Also, I can claim perfectly selfish reasons for it. Despite everything wrong in my life, I like living. If the world is destroyed, I won't have a life, either—let alone any of the people I care about. It's really not worth ignoring the state of the world, because no one else will fix it for me, so I'm doing what I can, and I'm just lucky people are willing to help."

"And you somehow do that through Shinra?" Rufus asked with a raised brow.

"Money, power, resources, research, good minds—Shinra's got what's needed to fix this crap. Doesn't anyone else see that?" Eden sighed, rolling his eyes. "You could be working through Shinra, too, because you have a lot of power to do things like get useful projects going and things like that. No number or type of terrorist will ever have the clout of Shinra, and they have to work outside the system to do anything, which hinders them more than it helps when Shinra is the world power—literally."

Several thoughtful looks appeared on the faces of the others in the room, and Genesis threw in, "Hence the reason you're not actually trying to destroy Shinra, no matter how much is wrong with them."

"I definitely want to find excuses to get rid of people like Hojo, but those are 'some people', not everyone," the Turk answered dryly. "And Hojo has _got_ to go."

"That's something I'm also beginning to see. However, as entertaining as this is, I should inform you that we have about two hours and fifteen minutes to get to our meeting with Elfé later," Rufus said.

"You realize she won't be happy to see me there, right?" Genesis asked dryly. "Even though we met once in the attack on Midgar—or _because_ we met then—I don't think she'll be likely to just let me in on her plans."

"Nor will she be happy to see Eden, but she's been very good about letting people in on the changes they're making if I've given approval for those people to know," the eighteen-year-old pointed out. "However, I have no choice but to have Eden with me, and you shouldn't be walking around the city alone."

"You could leave me here."

"You can't vanish overnight without word or warning, Commander."

At the silence which followed, Cait Sith turned his head to look at the red haired man and cocked it to the side. The question was so clear, and he knew it was Reeve who was actually asking it, so he had to sigh—he'd hoped the discussion wouldn't go back in that direction after Anthony's comment.

But the fourteen-year-old beat him to the answer as he said flatly, "Hojo didn't just torture Sephiroth, he tortured you, too. We were worried the sadist would get creative and try to find more people to torture since he was pissed about all his work being destroyed, right?"

"Is that true?" Shalua asked in alarm.

"...Unfortunately, yes," Genesis agreed quietly, leaning his head back to stare up at the ceiling. "It would have been worse if I hadn't cooperated, and he made it very clear he'd be more than happy if I didn't cooperate. I didn't want to give him cause to harm me any more than he was already going to do, so...there's a good chance Deepground now knows exactly what I didn't want them to know."

"What is Deepground?" Rufus asked sharply.

"The discussion we started with Sephiroth, Angeal, Zack, and the three of us earlier," Eden told his charge. "There's a lot you don't know about your own company, and Deepground is your father's private version of SOLDIER. Only, they're worse than Hojo, and you already have concerns about him."

"What does that have to do with the Commander's condition?" the older blond asked darkly.

"Your father signed me over to them," the red haired man sighed.

For a long minute, Rufus was quiet, but then he gave a slow nod and said, "Don't worry about Elfé. The one who is infinitely more concerning is Fuhito. If he's intending to build his own version of SOLDIER, or Deepground more likely, we have a lot to worry about. We'll have to leave in about an hour to make it there in time for the meeting, given your current condition, Commander."

"Fine," Genesis agreed, then lifted Cait Sith off his lap and turned him to face the blond Turk. "Since you've joined us, Reeve, meet Eden. He needed to talk with you about something, so off you go." He then threw the cat at Eden, who caught him instinctively.

"Good catch," Reeve's deep voice commented in amusement from the robot's cranial cavity. "It's a good thing the Cait Siths are built durable, though."

"Interesting," Eden chuckled, then looked at Rufus and ordered, "Stay here or I'll hunt you down, hand your ass to you, drag you back home, and lock you in your room for a week. Am I clear?"

The others gaped at him as Rufus gave him a constipated, withering glare and said, "Crystal. Don't worry, I'll behave—Mother."

With a snort, Eden got up and carried the robotic cat out of the room, going down the hall until he found a bedroom which didn't look well-used. "Is this one a spare?" he asked the cat, and he nodded, so the blond stepped inside and put Cait Sith down on the desk, pulled out the chair, turned it around, and sat straddling it with his arms propped on the back of it. "Reeve, the man in the navy suit who was in the President's office after the attack on the city?"

"That's me. I couldn't say anything then or all our lives would have been forfeit, but you've been a huge help to the Company, and the world. Thank you," Reeve answered.

"You heard what I said earlier, right?" When the cat tipped his head to the side, he went on, "I meant it. I just have a couple obstacles besides the self-chosen save-the-world ones. Tseng actually suggested I talk with you about one in particular because of your technical know-how. Interested?"

"What is it you need my technical know-how for?" The man's voice was clearly puzzled.

With a small sigh, the teen said, "When I was younger, I was—involved in a very stupid accident. I lost my leg from above the knee and down. Someone from my hometown who is _not here anymore_ made a leg for me which is tied into my nervous system so it functions like a normal leg and obeys commands from my brain—it just can't feel anything, and I can't feel it. The problem is that it doesn't grow with me."

"May I see it?"

At the true curiosity in the man's voice, Eden shifted back in the chair, rolled up his pant leg, and pulled his boot off, even as the cat jumped to the floor to get a better look at the limb. It was a little dented—he'd have been surprised if it wasn't—but he let the cat prod it and even moved the metal joints around as an example of how they worked. The cat even popped off some of the casings to have a look inside, where it and the man seeing through its eyes could see the wiring and gears.

"This is clearly highly advanced cybernetics—I've never seen anything this advanced before, even our holographic technology. I can see why Tseng suggested me instead of the doctors. Can you take it off, or is that painful?"

"It doesn't hurt to take it off, but it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch to put it back on, because it has to re-establish its connections to the nervous system through the port," Eden explained, tapping the fixture above the knee joint.

"Oh...If you really want me to try working on this for you, even though it's painful, I'll have to look at the ports and the connections...I hate asking you to do something which will cause you pain, though," Reeve sighed, sounding pained at the mere thought.

"Don't worry about it. There's no way it can be avoided—believe me, she was my best friend, like my sister, and she tried to make it as painless as possible, but there's nothing for it. If the connections can't be established properly, which they can only do when fully active, the limb won't work. I knew how painful it would be when I got outfitted with it, but it was my choice to suffer that pain. It also reminds me never to be so stupid again."

As the teen reached down to tug the leg off, the man said, "It sounds like something Hojo would actually like to work on. But doctors who care about their patients actually do this to people if it's so painful?"

Handing the leg to the robot, Eden said, "They do. It's no secret in my hometown that it's exceptionally painful, but I'm probably the—second youngest person to be outfitted with these. I was eleven. There was a girl who was younger when she was outfitted, and yeah, it hurts, but we know what we're getting in to, and what we'll get out of it. To be honest, there are a lot of people who know they can't stomach the pain, so they don't get them, and the doctors are fine with that, too. For me...I got my life back."

Reeve was quiet as he examined the connection point on the limb, then examined the port attached to the teen's leg, then gave the limb back to the teen and watched as Eden lined it up, then gritted his teeth and gave it one good, hard shove. A strangled sound of agony came from the blond as he squeezed his eyes shut against the pain, but it settled quickly and he straightened with a relieved breath. Reeve sighed in something like agitation, but Cait Sith reached up and patted his good knee.

"Are you okay now? The pain's gone?" the man asked.

Eden gave a small smile and said, "Yeah, back to normal."

"I'll start working on it, then. In the meantime, let me know if you need maintenance or repairs, because I should be able to do that much. Veld has said he wants to find time for us to meet, but I don't have a lot of it right now, not with the city repairs alongside on-going construction here. The attack set us back a lot. If it's for needed work on that leg, I'll leave word that you're to be shown directly to me immediately. If it's a meeting for something else, we'll still have to try to work out something official."

"That's fine. How's your attempt at making the Reactors more efficient going, by the way?"

"I've almost got a schematic complete which will use mostly materials already in place, greatly reducing the cost of making the modifications while still granting nearly double the efficiency. The difference between the two figures makes the modifications look very beneficial to the President's pocketbook, which is really the only way he'll accept it. Still, it's a step in the right direction."

"Can you also keep a spot to act as a Mako spring in the design? It's no good if Materia stop being produced entirely, but it needs to be more controlled. As long as some specified excess is being placed deliberately for that purpose, Materia will form naturally, without additional interference."

"A spring...Oh, that would be a portion of the efficiency I couldn't maneuver around."

"What?"

"I tried to make a Reactor design—of a completely new Reactor—which was one hundred percent efficient, and should have been able to reach about ninety-five percent in my calculations, but it wouldn't go that high no matter what I tried. If that's because the quantity being drawn up itself dictates the location will also act as a spring, the ten percent lack of efficiency would be because of the necessary spring status. I hadn't thought making a spring to deliberately produce Mako would be a means of accounting for it, but that's actually a very good idea. I'll work on it."

"Sounds like a good idea, and that's all news to me. I was thinking more along the lines of us wanting to keep producing Materia so we'd have more energy to be able to return to the Planet once its been Mastered. I think you're right, though, and Materia production, or at least a Mako spring, are required parts of having any source of energy stemming from the Lifestream."

"Can you return Mastered Materia to the Planet?"

"They can return naturally, but we have to find a way to force them to do so sooner."

"I'll have to leave that in your hands—you know more about Materia than I do, far more. My strength is technology. I'll do whatever I can to help you, though."

"Thanks, Reeve. You've already been a huge help, both with Deepground and the Reactors. And now my leg, too. When do you have time to sleep?"

"I don't. Generally, that means I fall asleep on my schematics."

The pure amusement in the older man's voice made Eden chuckle as he said, "Yeah, sounds like me in research mode. Maybe you should get Vant to make sure you're getting food and sleep."

"No thanks. I get food from my secretary, and sleep—she tries to make me go to bed, but I refuse. Work needs to be done, and unlike many of the others here, I won't leave the average civilian to suffer if I can do something to help."

"But logically, if you burn yourself out, you won't be helping anyone—for a very long time. Everyone else stops working overnight to sleep. No one will think badly of you for doing the same. Being rested also means you'll be at your best and get more work done faster and better because your mind will be fully aware while it's working. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about because I've done the same thing. Rest, Reeve."

For a minute, the man was silent, but then he sighed and said, "I...can try."

"Trying means stopping at night, going to your bedroom, getting in your bed, and sleeping, not staying in your office thinking about how you should be going home to your bed, but 'oh, just this little bit more and it'll be done'."

The words made the older man chuckle and say, "You have a point. I guess I can't argue that, and I'll really have to do it this time. For now, I'd better get back to work."

"Have a good day, and a good night, then," Eden said with a grin. "I'll see you around as soon as Veld can get us a meeting."

"In the meantime, if you find any of my Cait Sith units, they're a good way to contact me—just don't pet them or they'll turn into house pets."

"Understood," Eden said as he burst out laughing.

 **Notes:**

(1) This is actually a reference to Scar later in Brotherhood/the manga, though there were others Ed had similar experiences with.


	52. 51-Elfe

Elfé

About an hour and a half later, Rufus led the way into an abandoned office building in Sector 7 on the Upper Plate, and he, Eden, and Genesis found themselves surrounded by men and women holding guns pointed at them.

"I told you he couldn't be trusted!" a man's voice snarled.

"Hold on—Eden and Commander Rhapsodos aren't necessarily enemies," a woman's voice answered calmly. "It was they who told us the truth, and the Commander let us leave once already."

"Shears, Elfé, stop hiding," Rufus said in a cold tone. "Eden is now my guard, and he's very stubborn on that point—you already knew there was a good chance he'd be here with me. And Genesis isn't fit for combat right now thanks to Hojo."

A silence fell as many of the guns around the room wavered and Eden and Genesis traded raised brows. Finally, after a minute, a familiar man and woman stepped out from the darkest corner of the room and passed the circle of armed men and women. The man, Shears, made a motion and the armed men and women mainly scattered to patrol the perimeter, both outside and inside the building, leaving only the five of them standing in the middle of the room. Around that time, Eden began to feel a pulling sensation from the four shards of Zirconaide he had on him, all reaching for the one in Elfé's hand, and felt the sensation gradually growing stronger.

Elfé gazed at Genesis for a moment, then pointed at a crate not far away and said, "He's right, you should sit. What happened? I had been under the impression from Fuhito that Hojo was a very good doctor."

The red haired man moved over to sit as he snorted, "If your definition of 'a good doctor' is a sadist. And don't forget, Fuhito is the same man Neo Bahamut denounced."

"He was a skilled tactician, but I never liked him," Shears admitted. "Something about him always rubbed me the wrong way, and he's Hell-bent on destruction. How extensive, we're not sure, but it sounded like he intended to destroy all of Midgar at the very least. The Reactors outside Midgar are in danger, as well. What he'll do without us, we aren't entirely sure, especially since he and Elfé go back years and he apparently still never bothered to tell her the whole truth."

"Not that long," the woman said as she shook her head. "I can't remember anything before about—well, almost four years ago now, and it was AVALANCHE who took me in, gave me care for my injuries, fed me, clothed me, gave me shelter. Fuhito was there for the first almost two years before going back to Cosmo Canyon for research, and he didn't seem quite the same when he came back from there a few months ago. And if the rumors from our people there are even half-way true—that is, what Neo Bahamut said about him—Rufus, I don't actually think it's wise to fund him right now. I suppose we could have proceeded with the attack, but we already had too many losses and I had doubts about Fuhito already. When the Commander gave some of those form...it seemed most logical to withdraw for a time, regroup, plan another method."

"Is there a particular reason for your thought that I shouldn't continue to fund him, besides his support of a sadist?" Rufus asked.

"You know Shears was...an accidental addition to our ranks, along with the bandits he's been gathering, shortly before Fuhito went back to Cosmo Canyon," Elfé sighed. "That was about a hundred men, added to our fifty or so—and while our numbers and training have increased some since then, it wasn't enough to launch an attack like that. But when Fuhito went to the Wutain soldiers to have them join us in such a sudden attack...I have serious doubts he's the same person he had been. We weren't ready, and using such direct tactics, we could never _have been_ ready—what we _did_ manage was largely luck, and even that 'luck' wasn't on our side. He's never been this careless before, never so harried, it's like something broke inside him when he was at Cosmo Canyon."

"Probably what broke him was the incident with me and Neo Bahamut—it forced into the open the fact that he was a sadist himself, someone who only intended destruction and death, not to fix things," Eden said.

"...What was that story? His meeting you in Cosmo Canyon?" she asked quietly.

"Eden, I don't know if the details are wise to share," Genesis said in concern from his seat, eyes on the Turk with clear worry in them.

"There's some—extenuating circumstances—which Genesis is right and I can't share. Too many people already know," Eden said, and Shears frowned. "I can tell you some of it, what relates directly to him and our interactions, but personal things, I can't say. The thing is that he and I talked about the Reactors, the Lifestream being drained, things like that. He wanted me to join AVALANCHE, and that really _was_ before I had joined the Turks—but my main issue with doing so was that all you seemed to want to do was blow things up without considering the effects that would have on people or the fact that stopping the drain was less than half of the equation. I told him to get together with AVALANCHE's leaders and make better plans to actually _fix_ things. That obviously never happened."

He paused and looked away, letting his bangs fall forward to cover his eyes, though part of that was because the pulling sensation he felt from the shards was becoming painful. "By itself, that wasn't a big deal, but when I was climbing the canyon wall one day, I was—knocked out and fell from the wall into the river running alongside the town. It killed me, but I have uncanny luck with finding rare Materia—I'd found a Final Attack and paired it with Revive. At about the same time I fell, I managed to brush against Neo Bahamut's Materia which had been stuck in the canyon wall, and the Summon awakened and retrieved me from the ravine. When Fuhito tried to approach the shard, Neo Bahamut blew flames at him and warned him away, but let Nanaki—do you know those sentient mountain lions who also live in Cosmo Canyon?—go and retrieve his shard. I don't know exactly what Neo Bahamut said because I wasn't in any mental state to pay attention to that, but many others in Cosmo Canyon do. Whatever the Summon said caused him to leave before dawn the next morning."

A silence followed, then Shears said, "I don't envy you having experienced death."

"It's sure not something I care to experience again, myself," the blond agreed, still not looking up and tone becoming harder against the pain and throbbing in his head. "Fuhito was good at looking like he meant well, like he was concerned, but something always fell flat to me, and Neo Bahamut only confirmed something was wrong. At the time, I didn't realize he was cut from the same cloth as Hojo. Now, it actually sounds like he _always was_ psychotic, but he hid it better before being put on the spot by Neo Bahamut in front of nearly everyone in Cosmo Canyon."

"...You may be right," Elfé admitted quietly. "I suppose there were signs all along, and I remember that many of the tests and experiments he ran on members—thankfully only willing ones—were painful. I still don't know what he was really trying to do besides 'make them stronger' to compensate for our lack of numbers. But then, what is a psychopath's definition of 'making them stronger'? I don't think we have the same definition for that phrase."

"In that case, I would be likely to ask the Turks to find and eliminate Fuhito as a true danger to all of society, but I can continue to fund you, regardless of your plans," Rufus said, one of his eyes twitching as he tried to adjust to the new information he'd just been given about his guard and Fuhito. "Though, I would like to know some of those general plans so I also know when and what you need me for outside money."

Shears looked at Genesis suspiciously, so the red haired man said, "I don't care what you do any further than whether or not I have to react to it in order to protect the people I'm responsible for. In its own right, I don't even care if you want to blow up the Reactors—as things stand, I'm taking steps against Shinra, too. I'm just doing it through quieter methods, like finding someone who could re-design the Reactors to be more efficient so they drain less energy from the Lifestream. That plan is already well underway, and should be implemented soon."

The two AVALANCHE members traded looks, then Elfé nodded slowly and said, "When pressured, Fuhito acknowledged that he'd already been aware destroying the Reactors wouldn't be enough. He also said he didn't care, that he had already determined the only solution to be to slaughter the entire human race. The data on Chaos and Omega was only vaguely known to him, but known nonetheless, so we've begun taking those factors into account. Shin-Ra as it is can't be left, but if you truly intend to change things, we can focus on protective measures and searching out a new source of energy. Some of our people have ideas about that which they would like to try, so much of your funding would go to that, Mr. Shinra."

"Two questions, then," the blond asked shrewdly, and the pair nodded. "First, what kinds of sources of energy are you looking at, and second, what do you mean by 'protective measures'?"

After a moment, Shears raised a brow and asked, "No concerns about money?"

"Why the Hell would money concern me?" Rufus snorted. "I'm the Shinra President's son—I've got more money than I'd ever be able to use in a lifetime, even if I spent it carelessly."

"If you've got so much money, start using it to fix the Slums," Eden snapped, and the others blinked at him. He reached up to rub his forehead and said, "Sorry, but it's a valid statement. Part of the growth of the stagnant Mako pool is directly linked to the suffering of people, animals, plants. The Slums are people suffering by default, Rufus, so start using your excess money to fix them. And no, I don't mean that you should give away free money, I mean hire people to fix buildings, to clean up the streets, to put in some parks, even if the plants are just plastic—give them work, legitimate work which needs to be done to make their living conditions better."

"...We will return to that topic of discussion at another time, Eden," the older blond said, and Eden nodded, his fingers still rubbing his forehead. "In the meantime, you don't look well. What's wrong?"

Eden's hand dropped and his eyes lifted to Elfé as he said, "Your right arm—there's a Materia shard embedded in it." Her eyes widened, as did Shears', but she almost reluctantly nodded. "I have the other four shards which make up the whole, and it's driving me insane having all five of those bloody things pulling on one another."

The woman lifted her gloved right arm as she looked down at it for a minute, then looked back up at him and asked, "You know what it is?"

"It's a fragment of a Weapon called Zirconaide," the teen sighed. "Zirconaide's job is basically to cull populations which grow too large to be maintained, but once his 'container' was shattered, he couldn't emerge to do said job. The problem is—I don't know what effect that shard is having on you, but based on what was happening in Corel, I don't think it'll be good."

"What happened in Corel?" Rufus asked in confusion. "Scarlet said it's just like any other mining town."

"It is," Eden agreed tiredly. "The shard was in the well, but it was a very depressed shard, so it was causing depression in everyone who approached the well. Everyone made a concerted effort to stay away from the well because of that sense of doom and depression they were getting. Another very angry shard was attached to a Reactor guard at Gongaga, and the monster was in berserker mode with abilities I'm sure it didn't have naturally."

"You think this shard is harming me somehow," the woman said. When he nodded, her eyes closed and she said, "Maybe that's why I'm so tired all the time..."

"It's possible. Could I look at it before we leave?" the blond asked.

"Yes," she agreed.

"Then, you should probably get back to Mr. Shinra's questions about the energy projects and the 'protective measures' you mean," Genesis commented wryly.

Again, Shears and Elfé traded looks, then the woman began with, "We have some who want to use water—two different sources—as an energy supply, as well as wind, sun, steam, and a black substance called petroleum, which is used as a back-up fuel by Shin-Ra currently. I already dislike the last by the smell and texture alone, and to be honest, that stuff is nothing more than liquified rot and mold. One of the water options also stands a good chance of damaging land around the river, but in a correct location, it could be highly useful. Coal is already proven to be harmful to people's health and the land, so we would rather not revert to it. That about covers our projects, so Shears can explain the other part concerning protective measures."

With a nod, the man said, "Shin-Ra has a bad habit of slaughtering people, especially ones who didn't do anything wrong. After our failure here, we've come to the conclusion that the world needs a place safe from Shin-Ra to retreat to, and the only place which has any potential is Wutai. We'll reinforce their defenses and act as covert units to retrieve people who are on Shin-Ra's hit list for no real reason to secure their safety in Wutai so they can live peacefully, or just live at all. If they want to join our unit or Wutai's defense forces, I'm sure the Emperor won't refuse them if it means they can hold out against Shin-Ra longer. (1) More than anything, that requires inside data so we can get people out of harm's way before they're killed. Maybe we won't always be able to save them, but even if we can save some, it's better than their chances now."

After a minute to ponder the words, the eighteen-year-old blond gave a nod and said, "Acceptable, on both counts. It's much more passive than it was, but in the long run, it may do more good. Rather, taking into account Chaos and Omega, it should do a great deal more good, and still ultimately mean my father will lose his power base. I'll continue to fund you as I'm able. As the Turks already know about my involvement with you and haven't deigned to inform anyone like my father, my basis for 'funding as able' is more to do with 'not being caught by certain people' than just 'not being caught.' Now, Eden, you needed to speak with Elfé?"

The younger teen nodded and said to her, "Let's sit down."

A puzzled frown creased her forehead as she asked, "Is there any particular reason why?"

"Just—this probably won't be especially pleasant for either of us," he answered with a small sigh.

She relented and nodded as she led the way to a door off the main room and said, "This room used to be an office, literally, but whoever cleared this place out left a few chairs here for some reason. The others can wait for us out there."

Once in the office, Elfé closed the door and went to the collection of five chairs in the room. Three sat directly facing each other around a small, round table which was obviously collapsible and a new addition, and the woman sat in one of the chairs at the table. As Eden sat in the seat to her right, she carefully tugged her glove off to reveal the glowing, red, fractured object embedded in it just above the wrist, then laid her arm on the table so it was visible. The younger teen slipped his suit jacket off and rolled his right sleeve up so he could remove the other four fragments from the bracer there to lay them on the table beside her arm, making her eyes widen in alarm.

"They _do_ pull on each other..." she murmured, then looked up at him.

"Elfé, you need to understand this," Eden said quietly, his expression pained. "When I touch Materia with my bare skin, I get dragged into them, their functionality, their energy flows—the outside world ceases to exist for me. It places me in a very vulnerable position, and I would prefer the fewer people who know, the better. I've been working to try to reduce the effect, but for the purposes of Zirconaide, when it was fragmented, it wound up as five separate 'beings' which have to be spoken with independently. To find out exactly what's going on with the one in your arm, I'll need to try to talk with all five at once, one of which I've had neither the time nor the opportunity to speak with independently since I grabbed it off Fuhito in the attack."

She gazed at him for a long moment, then said, "You fell because of Neo Bahamut, not prior to." He just nodded, so she offered, "Speak first with the one you haven't had a chance to speak with yet, then speak with mine. That may ease your attempt to communicate with all of them together."

He paused for a moment, then nodded and reached over to pull the newest shard he'd acquired from the set. Taking his glove off, he reached forward to touch the fragment with the tip of his finger, bracing for the kind of chaos he'd gotten from the first three. Instead, what he felt was something cold and cynical, an entity which acknowledged him with derisiveness. In fact, it was a lot like Fuhito came across...

 _:So you have come to speak with me directly. The others have told me your goals, Sentinel, and while I have doubts of your success, you have at least shown true effort in the attempt,:_ the being said, voice full of a chill which made the blond shudder.

 _:Are you willing to join the others to wait and watch, then? To judge and destroy after you've seen who, and how many, are willing to try to fix things?:_ Eden asked.

At first, there was a pause, then the cold fragment of Zirconaide answered, _:I will. However, you must save a certain minimum number of people, and in a demographic which will allow them to appropriately repopulate the world after judgment. If you cannot, there is no point in sparing what remains as the world will be doomed regardless.:_

 _:What do you mean, what kind of 'demographic'?:_ Ed asked, feeling ill suddenly as he realized this fragment had knowledge the others didn't.

 _:To date, the majority of those you have 'saved' are male or females in combat positions, making them less likely to wish to reproduce. While not wrong, that is unrealistic for the survival of a population, and you need many more females of your race, of or near to reproduction age and who are_ willing _to do so. The number cannot be too small, either, or there will not be enough genetic diversity to maintain the population. Perhaps some of your scientists know of a specific number, but for our purposes, a number less than two hundred is too small, and even that is a bare minimum, dangerously so,:_ (2) the Weapon informed him.

 _:...Thank you for telling me. I, and we, will work on that,:_ the blond Turk said, then withdrew from the link and looked up at Elfé to say, "It looks like things just got more complicated in general. Either way, yours is next."

She blinked, but nodded, so he reached over to touch the fragment in her arm with one finger as he had the other one. It seemed calm, but was very pained...and—happy?—leaving him feeling confused. The pained-happy one also noticed him right away.

 _:Who are you? How are you reaching right in to me?:_ the being asked curiously.

 _:It's what I do. The other Summons refer to me as 'Sentinel', and what I'm trying to do right now is figure out what's going on with you and Elfé. There will be more later, but the main thing right now is your connection to her,:_ he explained.

At first, the being seemed puzzled, then it was like something clicked and it asked, _:The energy sustaining me comes from this...Elfé?:_

 _:Yes.:_

 _:Who, or what, is she?:_

 _:A human woman who is trying to fix things that are wrong in the world.:_ It actually surprised Eden to realize the Summons really could only fully interact with him, Genesis, or probably Aeris while in Materia form—people like Elfé literally had no way to communicate with them unless they were summoned. Apparently the reverse was also true, unless that was just a quirk of Zirconaide because it was fractured and not all the pieces for interaction and communication were there.

 _:I see...Why is this a concern?:_

 _:She has said she's always tired, but right now, we don't know if that's directly caused by your connection to her or something else.:_

 _:She could remove me from her person if she feels I am a danger to her.:_

 _:Not when some idiot literally stuck you in her arm. We'd have to cut her arm off to remove you.:_

 _:...Oh, dear.:_ A long silence followed the statement, then the being said, _:My other fragments are nearby. May I speak with them?:_

 _:I figured it would go that way. Give me a minute,:_ Eden said. When a sense of agreement reached him, he withdrew from the link and looked up at Elfé—only to see her grimacing and her arms trembling. There was pain in her eyes as well, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

"When you...connected to it...pain shot through me...and I could hear your discussion. I would have said something, but you couldn't hear me. All I could do was listen," she said. "Is that anything like it feels like for you?"

"I get more dizzy than I do pained with the debilitation when it's just one, but I know they can cause me pain by effectively yelling into my head or I touch more than one at once," he said, debating the other fragments and how he could position them to touch all five at once. Finally, he started moving them with his gloved hand to lean on her arm around the one embedded there.

"I noticed. I don't envy you that debilitation," she said, then drew in a breath and clenched her fist. "Get it all sorted out now so this won't have to be done too many times. In the meantime—I'll just brace myself and listen."

He nodded and watched as she gritted her teeth, then set his hand down across all five shards. Like the time he'd connected with Shiva, Titan, and Ramuh all at once, this hurt like he'd never felt before, dragging and pulling and confusing him as all five tried to force their data on him at once. All five pieces of the entity waited and watched while he forced control of the influx of information, then began sorting it into manageable background noise so he could address them.

 _:I am never doing that again...:_ he sighed. _:Too many at once.:_

 _:You retain sanity. As such, it is not 'too many' for your mind to manage,:_ the cold one informed him dryly.

 _:Also, it is highly likely you_ will _do this again when circumstance next calls for it,:_ the first one he'd encountered added, sounding faintly amused—a far cry from the anger it had once held.

 _:Anyway...:_ he cut them off from any further teasing. But really? The fragments of a destructive Weapon were going to _tease_ him? Maybe they were more 'human' than he'd thought at first. _:One of your fragments is stuck in El_ _fé's a_ _rm. I really don't want to cut her arm off to get it out, and we need a way to find out what it's doing to her as well as to remove it.:_

All five fragments turned to trace the energy source which wasn't him—and the cold one said, _:It drains her life directly, rather than indirectly. Should we merge in a summoning fashion, it will kill her. I am assuming you wish to spare her life as well as her arm?:_

 _:Yes, absolutely!:_ Eden answered, feeling ill. He was pretty sure Elfé felt the same.

After a silence, the depressed part of the being said, _:There is a way we could merge without summoning directly, though I am uncertain whether anyone other than Minerva could perform it. Convert our basic forms and functionalities into those of 'Independent' Materia (3), and we will merge peacefully, without further harm to or drain on this...Elfé. The likelihood of mere humans being able to perform such a task is—very low.:_

 **Notes:**

(1) AVALANCHE is based in Wutai, so I find it hard to believe they don't know a good many people there. Since Elfé is their leader currently, I've decided to play with exactly who she and Fuhito know in Wutai, and the Wutains are definitely on good terms with AVALANCHE and vice versa. I don't want to spoil my plot just yet, though, so I'll stop here.

One note, though—no date was ever given for AVALANCHE's creation, so I'm having it happen after Tseng's dramatic past as a ten-year-old, and he was already in Shinra by the time they formed, otherwise Fuhito would have been too young to start forming it and Rufus would have been too young to fund it.

While Fuhito was originally the leader, he turned actual leadership over to Elfé, probably around the time he went back to Cosmo Canyon, possibly even before Shears joined them—the implication is that Shears joined AVALANCHE after their leader, Elfé, fought him and proved to be more powerful. This also happened before Fuhito went back to Cosmo Canyon for two years, since he and Elfé were the ones Shears and his bandits thought to attack. Shears wouldn't have been working with them in 0000 in Before Crisis unless this was before Fuhito's trip, so is estimated to have happened in 1997 or 1998—I picked early-mid 1998.

(2) The actual 'scientific number' is 60, 30 each male and female of reproduction age, but putting the number so low and expecting to maintain the required genetic diversity would literally mean an end to marriages of love and arranged marriages would become a must for hundreds, even thousands, of years, and that's assuming both the men and the women WANT to have many multiples of children. Speaking for myself—I never want to have children, even being a woman, so regardless of 'genetic diversity', I would refuse to have any. This is why I'm having Zirconaide stipulate that the women have to WANT children, otherwise they'd end up with a society just like the one they left behind—a society of torture and suffering. Also, for my purposes, I need more people than 60 because of how many either can't/won't have children or who would be lucky to have only one (Mako infusions make reproduction difficult at best, remember).

(3) I chose Independent Materia because they don't rely on anything else to support them or work with them—they have an 'automatic' application to their functionality. As such, of all the types of Materia, it's the one most likely to be able to sever from Elfé and still be able to maintain itself without causing her harm—Zirconaide would still maintain sentience, but it won't be a 'Summon' anymore.


	53. 52-Approaching

**A/N:** There are several Turks in this chapter and the next, so some readers may want to go back to the 'List of Current Turks' if they think they may not know who's who.

Also, note that Eden's got his PHS now set to ring for an incoming call, but to vibrate for a text message. I don't know if real cell phones do this in exactly this way, but this way it's easy to know what kind of communication is going on.

Approaching

Eden was pacing the room, paying no attention to Elfé as she held a hand over her face and her shoulders shook. His mind was working on a way to do what the fragment of Zirconaide had said, but he didn't know enough about the creation of Materia directly to know what actually caused each type to become what it was. All he knew was that he didn't want to see this woman die after she had realized what was going on and wanted to fix things, not just do a quick patch job. She wasn't a bad person, and she had a right to continue living. There was also the fact that Summoning Zirconaide at this point was out of the question, but she would die soon (well, sooner than her natural life span would have been) anyway as long as the shard was stuck in her arm. In truth, though, they really had no idea how long her lifespan would be with the Materia there.

"Eden, is there any way to do what the fragment said?" the woman finally asked. She sounded lost, but not overly any other emotion.

He faced her and saw that her eyes were red from crying, but turned his attention to the question at hand instead. "I don't know. There should be a way, but I would need Genesis' help for that. Maybe we won't even resolve it today, but it's not something I'm willing to just give up on, either—so don't you dare give up before you know for sure."

Drawing in a deep breath, she nodded slowly, then said, "Ask him to come in, then. Better to sort the basics out now, while we have the opportunity, than to try to risk it later when there may no longer be the time or the ability to do so."

With a small smile, he said, "That's a good way to look at it. Also, have you got paper? We'll need copies of the arrays—at minimum, we need the arrays from the one attached to you, because you can't exactly come back to Shinra Headquarters with us."

"...Shears may know, or he'll be able to send someone to get some," she offered.

Giving her a nod, Eden turned and went back to the door, opening it and stepping out into the main room. Rufus and Shears had moved to the crate where Genesis sat and the three were apparently conversing calmly, but they all looked up at him when he opened the door.

"What have you found out?" Shears asked.

At seeing his expression, Genesis quickly added, "It wasn't good, was it?"

"No, it wasn't," the Turk admitted, and all three gave concerned looks. "The fragment stuck in her arm is draining her life force, hence her exhaustion. We can't just merge them together, because in their current form, that would require Summoning. Not only are we not yet ready to Summon Zirconaide, but doing so while the shard is stuck in her arm would kill her." Their eyes widened, so he looked at Genesis and said, "One of the fragments said there was one way to merge them without it causing her harm, which would also lift the one attached to her without harming her, but I need your Materia knowledge, Genesis. I don't know enough of the right information to be able to convert Support and Summon form Materia into Independent Materia."

"That's what you need to do to save her?" Genesis asked with a puzzled frown.

"Yes. Apparently, it's possible, but to the best of their knowledge, only Minerva technically is capable of doing it. Something tells me this isn't as simple as just working with the arrays, because one of the key factors in conversion is exactly 'what' makes a Materia a Support, a Magic, a Summon, and so on, in the first place. I don't know that," the teen explained, and Genesis nodded and rose.

"I can't guarantee a quick resolution, but I'll see what I can find out from the arrays," the red haired man agreed, joining the teen at the door to the room.

"Have you got paper?" the Turk asked Shears.

"Yeah, give me a minute and I'll bring it to you," Shears answered as he turned to head for the stairs to the second floor.

Rufus followed Genesis and Eden into the room, blinking in surprise at the woman's arm as Genesis moved over to take the Turk's former seat. "It really would be impossible to remove it without cutting off your arm," he commented, staying by the door as Eden sat in the third seat.

She looked up at him and nodded. "It may have helped if I knew how it came to be there in the first place, but as things stand..."

"Eden's method is the only one we have," he finished. "And whether or not it's possible is debatable."

"That's not entirely true," Eden said, looking up at the others. They stared at him, so he elaborated, "It _is_ possible, because humans can create any effect found in nature, and even a bunch of ones not found in nature. The fact that nature can do this very thing, this conversion of one type of Materia to another, means there _is_ a way to do it, and we just have to find that way. However, the hard part lies in exactly that fact—we have to _find_ it. Maybe we don't have the technology, or the mathematical equations, or the knowledge of the functionality arrays, in order to replicate the effect. It's possible the method won't be found for another hundred, or another thousand years. Fact is, we have to try _now_ , not wait for others to figure it out at some point in the future after we're all dead and it no longer actually matters. And if all else fails, there's a good chance Genesis can appeal to Minerva directly for help—and I think she'll give it if she knows the situation."

The three of them just gaped at him, only for Shears to ask, "Who dropped another bomb?" as he came back with a stack of paper.

"Could we skip straight to appealing Minerva?" Rufus asked as he shook off his shock.

"No," Genesis said, giving his head a shake. "That would be easy—and it would mean we'd start appealing to her every time something needed to be fixed instead of making an honest attempt to fix it ourselves, first. Ultimately, we learn more and improve ourselves and our society through fixing our own mistakes. Some mistakes are just so horrible that she expects us to do as much as we can, then will pick up the slack." His gaze lifted to Elfé's as he added, "But Eden is right in saying I'll appeal to her if we've exhausted every option—and she still may only give us the clues to fix the problem ourselves, not directly fix it."

"There's that," Eden agreed dryly. "I wouldn't want to go to her for everything, because that just means I don't care enough about this world and the people living on it. On the other hand, never going to her at all is how Shinra got into the mess they're in."

"How do you go to the Lifestream for help in the first place?" Rufus scowled. "It's not like anyone can talk with her—isn't there supposed to be only one last living Ancient around to act as her voice?"

Genesis sat back and turned to look at Rufus as he said, "I call on her every time I use my Limit Break, and she answers me—every time. It's not that we _can't_ , it's that we're not _trying_. We haven't been 'trying' since Shinra started draining the Lifestream, not even those people who are opposed to Shinra. We all got too caught up in our own little worlds and stopped trying to see _hers_. She wants us back, wants us to hear her, to help her, to know she's there and to care about her as much as she cares about us. If we were to start fixing things and acknowledging her, we would hear her again."

Shock permeated the room at the words, and in his shock, Shears lost his grip on the stack of paper he carried. The noise of the papers hitting the floor was followed by a long silence followed. Genesis turned back to Elfé and placed his hand over the fragmented shard in her arm, reaching out with his mind to tap it as he always did to see the arrays. Eden got up and grabbed several of the sheets from the floor, then returned them to the table, pushed them under the red haired man's free hand, and shoved the pen he now always kept on him into said hand. There was a silence again as Genesis went into a trance-like state and began drawing the arrays of the fragment on the papers. Each paper was devoted to an array, broken or not, and when he started getting low on sheets, Eden gathered more to add to the stack.

Finally, forty-six sheets of paper later, Genesis sat back with a relieved sigh as he dropped the pen and closed his eyes. His hand lifted away from the fragment in her arm, then fell limply to his side as he groaned tiredly, "Sub-arrays are annoying, especially when they're broken..."

"Absolutely," Eden agreed in mild amusement. "At least you can get them all down while actively looking at them instead of having to do it from memory."

The other man's lips quirked, then he asked, "Does it look like I got them all?"

As the blond had been gathering all of them as Genesis had finished each, he got up and moved over to a wide, clear spot on the floor and began laying them out while the others watched curiously. "When do we need to be back, Rufus?" Eden asked as he worked.

"Likely by the evening meal, unless I call to tell them otherwise," he said with a small frown.

"Then we don't really have time to do more today. Regardless, this looks like it's all of the arrays from Elfé's fragment, and as long as I have the other four shards, we can fill in the rest of the arrays at any time. I have a feeling we're going to have to manipulate the broken arrays to either fix them or remove them, rather than leaving them as they are now, but we won't know how to do that until we've got all of them," the teen said, gathering the papers again.

"Wouldn't removing them prevent the functions from working?" Shears asked in alarm. The woman and Rufus looked confused as well.

"If they were whole arrays, yes," Genesis agreed. "If this was, say, Phoenix instead of five separate pieces of an entity which should only be one, removing an array would remove from its functionality whatever that array controlled. Depending on which one was removed, that could prevent you from Summoning Phoenix. That's not the case with Zirconaide, because right now, any broken array is half in one fragment and half in another, which is causing it to be incapable of functioning in both. Loose ends, loose energy, incomplete functions—those can't just be put back together and function smoothly. What Ed's saying is that we'd find the matching fragmented arrays, make one of the fragmented halves whole, and erase the other half entirely so there's no conflict between them when we try to merge them."

"And we've been here long—" Eden began, but he and the others froze as his phone rang, so he pulled it out to answer it. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Something's happened. Where are you?" Veld asked.

"In town with Rufus and Genesis, why?" the teen asked with a frown, and the others traded concerned looks.

"It can't wait. Turn Rufus over to Genesis' care and get back here," Veld said, then hung up, even as Ed's eyes slid closed. Without really thinking about it, he hung up and pocketed his PHS.

"Great. More work," he sighed tiredly, then opened his eyes to look around at the others, who were all looking at him in confusion. "Looks like Veld needs me back. Think you'll be okay with just Genesis to guard you, Rufus?"

"We'll manage, Eden. It must be serious for him to call you back without sending a _functioning_ replacement," the older blond answered.

The long haired blond handed the papers to Genesis as he grabbed the four fragments of Zirconaide and began returning them to the bracer on his arm, saying as he did, "It sounds like it, though I can only hope part of this is good news, not bad. See you once I'm done—and I swear you'll regret it if you get into trouble before then."

Rufus snorted and waved him away as Shears and Elfé blinked in surprise and Genesis chuckled. Finally, he snatched his suit jacket and ran out of the room, pulling the jacket on as he ran out of the building and headed for the Shinra building. On his way, he began checking building walls, roof edges, and other items around the city for the same notations Tseng had shown him in the Slums. Soon after leaving the abandoned office, he found such a notation and quickly scrambled up to the rooftops to make his way across the city faster, thanks to the many overarching walkways and scaffolding beams linking the buildings.

Several minutes later, he was panting a bit as he jumped from an emergency stair and landed near the front doors of his destination, eliciting a shocked yelp from Zack as he was leaving with a small package in his hands. With a laugh and wave at the other teen, he ran into the building and took the stairs up to the Turks' offices—and started to regret that several floors up. Still, he made it in good time, stopping outside the door to that floor as he caught his breath, buttoning up his suit jacket as he rested. Once his breathing had slowed, he stepped out onto the floor and made his way to the office room, opening the door to see several Turks gathered around Tseng's desk at the back.

"So, you needed me here?" Eden asked, glancing around at the others. He saw Veld, Tseng, Freyra, Reno, Rude, a blond woman, the man he'd first seen with Freyra, another black haired man who he thought had been part of the defenses during the attack, and a red haired...girl?

"Eden," Tseng nodded, then raised a brow. "You must have been nearby."

"Nope. The same notations you showed me last night apply to the Plate, too," the blond answered, and the red haired teen chuckled as Freyra grinned.

"Told you he'd figure it out, Alvis! You owe me a hundred gil!" Freyra practically chirped at the red haired man, who groaned and pulled out his wallet to hand her the money. When Eden looked again at him, he realized his flyaway hair was more auburn than red, his eyes were nearly black, and he was about eighteen, but he wore the Turk suit properly in contrast to an aura which screamed 'gang punk'.

Ed raised a brow at the exchange, then more as the black haired man he didn't know commented to the blond woman with amusement, "Looks like you're still the shortest one of us, Short-Stuff." Most of his black hair was flipped to the right side of his face in wild locks and the left had a pattern shaved into it while his eyes were dark brown and he wore his uniform without the tie and with the top of the shirt open. He looked to be around the same age as Freyra.

Several of the others chuckled as the blond woman just rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, yeah, so what else is new?" She had blue eyes and her hair was cut straight at about her chin, the only exception being her shorter bangs, and she was about seventeen or eighteen. Unless he missed his guess, she was also...half an inch shorter than him? Really? That was pretty unusual for someone her age, and if Elena was her sister, the younger of the two was also taller, very close to his height at an age where she was still growing.

"Doesn't it bother you to be so—short?" Eden asked with a little face at the reminder of those old insults, though he really didn't feel the need to erupt in anger. It was only then when he realized this was the first time he'd heard a 'short joke' since he'd been on the Planet, and it wasn't even directed at him! It didn't feel as bad, or as urgent to react to, even when he thought of it being said to him, and he began to wonder what had changed. Just himself and his maturity level? He'd been through a lot in his last months on Amestris, let alone what he'd been through on Gaia, after all...

She looked at him with a raised brow and asked, "What's wrong with being short? I'm harder to hit that way, and that's _always_ a good thing in this line of work." The others chuckled again, and he blinked in mild surprise as he realized his mind was apparently ready to accept that as a defense for his own height.

"Okay," he agreed a little warily, causing a few raised brows, then he looked back at Veld and Tseng to ask, "So, intros and the reason you called me here?"

"Meet Emma, Alvis, Ruluf, and Cissnei," Tseng answered, motioning to each as he said their name. "They've all spent most of their lives here in Midgar, the ladies even in the Shinra building, so they were the ones we went to for help making floor plans in an attempt to find the entrance to Deepground." He pushed a stack of paper in the blond teen's direction. "These are the results. It also gets worse."

"How can this get worse?" the younger blond asked with a small frown.

At that moment, his PHS vibrated in his pocket to let him know he had a text message—that feature was especially useful to him at the moment—so he pulled it out to check it, finding a short message from Rude, _What's wrong?_

"Eden," the Wutain man said, making the blond look up in time to see the older Turk flip a small device over to him, which he caught and looked at before his eyes went back to Tseng. "I'll show you some pictures once you've looked at these, and you need to get that to Genesis."

With a nod, Ed tucked the device into his pocket, then began looking at the stack of floor plans. There were a lot of them stacked from top floor to bottom, so he had to go through them pretty carefully. The first thing he noticed was that most of the interior walls had far too much space between them, though that space could have legitimately been filled to act as building supports. He pulled out his pen and began to mark all the places where there was a great deal of space between walls, but also began to notice other things marked on the maps, so circled the ones not inside the walls as he went from sheet to sheet.

The others were grabbing sheets he'd marked as he pushed them aside to continue to the next, but they waited until he was done, not looking very surprised. In total, he'd circled about a dozen things and marked almost half the building walls. The problem was that it would be a trick and a half to search every wall without being caught.

"I hope these aren't what I think they are," Cissnei said, her brown eyes worried as she looked at one sheet in particular where something had been circled. Her auburn-red hair fell freely a bit past her shoulders, and it looked like she favored a shuriken for combat, though she'd hidden it well under her uniform jacket. She was also the girl of about fifteen, and looked like she was about his height, maybe slightly taller.

"What do you mean, Cissnei?" Veld asked her as Eden sent the reply to Rude.

She looked up at him and said, "The same thing I mentioned before—these aren't what we were looking for because they're all objects outside the walls, and after having looked at a few, it's likely they're listening devices. I think we're all being monitored more closely than we thought, and it's only luck none of us have said something fatal near one of these."

Taking the time while Cissnei was talking to look again at Rude's message, Eden thought back to what had bothered him—and realized the man meant his uncertainty over the height issue, so now knew how to reply. _I've always been on the short side, and it's always been—problematic to me, so I don't usually deal well with 'short jokes'._

The others nodded as they examined the locations of them very closely, then sat or leaned back in concern. "Someone will have to find that out, and quickly," Emma said. "One of them is on one of the Academy floors—that would explain those missing students in the last two years, too."

Veld looked at Eden and asked, "Have you held private conversations in any of those locations?"

"When have I had the time?" the blond snorted. "No, on my end, this isn't a problem. What _is_ a problem is how much 'empty space' is hidden in the building walls—some of it may well be filled to support the building's weight, or in use like most of the unmarked space on this floor." He gave Veld an amused grin as he said the last, and Veld inclined his head in acknowledgment. "It would be impossible to search every one of these places discretely for any hidden openings, and a lot of them will probably not be what we're looking for, even if 'something' is there. I'd vote starting with the main floor to find an entrance to Deepground, though, since it would be _easy_ to go down from there."

"Speaking of," Tseng said, reaching over to pick up a smaller stack of 'papers', which he handed to Eden. The blond took them as the man added, "Your thoughts?"

They turned out to be photos, Eden saw right away, and it looked like they were of places in the Slums. At first, he didn't see the point of them, until he saw glowing eyes on one of the men shown in the fourth picture. Going back to the first picture, he began looking at their eyes, and noted a glow in some people's—and they were often being shown leading or taking someone away. A few times, he saw a woman with glowing eyes or a woman or child being led or taken away somewhere, but any pictures ended at a blank wall next to the central tower supporting the Plate and the Shinra building. The last photo was of that spot where the people seemed to be disappearing, but there was nothing there which was out of place. While he was looking through the stack, his PHS vibrated again, likely with Rude's reply, since no one else texted him.

Looking up, the blond said, "Call me crazy, but I'm sure this is Deepground. Who took the photos?"

"Yo!" Reno said with a little wave, then pointed at Emma. "She lives in the Slums, so took some of 'em, too. Ruluf and Alvis don't go back there much except ta work on missions, so all they've done is checks on the data, yo. I tracked 'em back to that spot, but..."

"They always disappear there," Emma sighed. "It's like they literally vanish into thin air. I don't like Elena living in the Slums while kidnappings like this are going on, especially if it's people like Deepground."

"No wonder she found her way to Shalua's place," Eden snorted, making the others give him confused looks, except for Tseng and Rude, who knew who Shalua was. And Veld, because he didn't show emotion at all, other than in very rare circumstances.

"Now that Shalua has joined the Academy, it was somewhat expected," Tseng agreed. "She's actually very lucky it's someone aiming to be a Turk living with her."

"Yes, Shalua is gathering quite a number of guards, future SOLDIERs and future Turks," the blond chuckled. He then looked back down at the photos, saying, "But if this is recent activity, we have a problem going in there."

"It's more like raidin', honestly, yo," Reno said with a huff, and Emma nodded.

"Meaning?" Veld asked.

"Small-scale attacks," Emma answered. "It's not so much that they're kidnapping people, because that's not all they're doing—they get into fights and kill people. The raids are getting more frequent, and instead of them just killing gangsters and rowdy Slummers, they're knocking them out and running off with the bodies. Not to mention, they're not limiting themselves to the worst of the scum, they're going after normal civilians, too. Or so say the people around the Slums."

While Emma was talking, Eden checked his PHS for the message, and sure enough, Rude had replied to him. _I have never understood others' desire to be tall. I would much rather not have to worry about hitting my head on doorways or other things, and I'm really far to easy a target for enemies. My height is one of my most detrimental features as a Turk. The most important thing is your skills—the same ones you've proven to all of us time after time. Nothing else matters, and friendly teasing is good for you._

Eden send Rude a faint, slightly crooked smile and began composing a reply.

"I got the same word on some a' my plainclothes visits back there, yo," Reno agreed. "It isn't the kinda activity it used ta be, yo. Somethin' agitated 'em—probably whatever the crap is with the Commander."

"What gets me is that wall," Alvis threw in, frowning deeply. "I'm pretty much an expert on that area and any hideaways or paths in there, but there aren't any."

"That gets me, too," Ruluf added. "It's true there are plenty of hidden paths in the Slums, especially around Corneo's mansion, but this is one of the Plate support walls. There aren't holes in them—or there shouldn't be—outside planned and known ones. I checked it out earlier today, but there were no triggers or catches anywhere around the area, and the only path through led to the Train Graveyard. Alvis checked a few days ago and didn't find anything, either."

"Can you walk up the tracks?" Eden asked suddenly, and the others looked at him.

"You can, but only so far," Freyra said, then snapped her fingers and grinned, "Unless you have high-level access ID, then you can even use those maintenance paths through the inside of the pillar!"

"ID which Deepground has," Tseng agreed.

"We need to do some culling while we wait for their next move. It'll make our lives a lot easier when we go in," Cissnei said. "And we'd better do it now—it's getting close to the time when they'll come out for their nightly prowling."

At that moment, Eden was able to send his message to Rude, _I never said it was logical, it just always bothered me. Believe me, this is the BEST reaction I've ever had to teasing about my height, or anyone's._

"Why are they doing this _now_ , though? Why not months or years ago?" Alvis asked, staring down at one of the floor plans he held.

Eden looked at Tseng with a raised brow, so the Wutain gave a small nod and said, "A few weeks ago, the General and the Commanders took missions which were somewhat unusual. There was a legitimate problem in each location, but one of man-made origin, without even Reactor influence. All three fought top commanders, or Tsviets, of Deepground—and won, killing their opponents in the process. A week later or so, Commander Rhapsodos was attacked while on vacation in Costa del Sol, and his opponents were two of the control forces, or Restrictors, of Deepground along with another Tsviet. Genesis single-handedly defeated one of the Restrictors, severely wounded the other, and stalled the Tsviet long enough for Eden, Rude, and Vant to arrive. Eden defeated the Tsviet while Vant finished off the last Restrictor. There are only two Restrictors left, and only a semi-official Tsviet—they lost nearly every one of their most powerful people in all of a week."

"...Oh..." Alvis commented, rubbing the back of his head as the others all stared, then their eyes went to Eden, pondering his experience against Deepground.


	54. 53-Slum Battle

Slum Battle

"So what are we actually up against?" Ruluf asked pointing at the photos in Eden's hands. "And what _is_ Deepground, actually?"

"By data I found recently in the archives, it used to be an intensive care medical facility, but as the central core of Midgar and the Plate were built up, it was converted to an experimentation and combat facility," Tseng told them, then gave Eden a nod. "You can fill them in on what you fought."

"The members aren't nearly as strong as the Restrictors or the Tsviets," Eden shrugged. "Not that they aren't strong—they're all Mako-infused, and operate at higher levels than the average First Class SOLDIER. They're more durable than even a lot of normal SOLDIERs, and trained to kill or be killed—they're only as easy to take out for us as they are because we've honed our skills where they mainly depend on guns or brute strength. The only guarantee we have is that there's pretty much no hope of rehabilitation, unless the person was non-aggressive to begin with or a new addition to their ranks."

"Like a recently-captured child," Emma said, pressing her lips together.

"Let's go do some cullin', then, yo!" Reno grinned as everyone began rising.

"Yes, let's—in pairs," Tseng said before the others could rush off. They all stopped to stare at him, then waited while he set them up. Not long after the Turks were paired off into four teams, Rude with Reno, Ruluf with Alvis, Cissnei with Emma, and Eden with Freyra. Tseng and Veld were still in the office to field calls, Veld for all other active Turks and Tseng for their specific mission.

Eden and Freyra had made their way to the Sector 7 Slums and were crouched on a rooftop as they eyed people going by, the woman with her shotgun out. "I don't suppose even picking some of them off will help us much," she commented quietly, both of them watching as the darkness under the Plate slowly grew deeper.

"Every little bit will help. I mean—we were hoping to get some vents mapped out, but if things are moving this fast, I don't think we'll have much chance to get that advantage over them," the blond answered as he kept an eye on the nearby streets.

"Hmm, well, they do say no plan survives first contact with the enemy," she grinned. "But even though I'm all for hunting them down...What if that triggers a stampede through the main building?"

"Then we do the same thing with them as we did against AVALANCHE and the Wutain army invaders. I don't think that'll happen yet, though," Eden shrugged.

"Why not?"

"They have no Tsviets left other than one who apparently prefers not to go into combat and one still in the experimental stage. Unless they can replace their missing power people, they probably won't risk going up against all of SOLDIER and the Turks—and probably a bunch of the Academy kids in combat classes—who will gladly take them down without mercy. Now, if we cut off their supply of test subjects by doing this and keep Genesis out of their hands, they may just get desperate enough to try it, but I'm honestly of the opinion that they won't last that long, because we'll take the fight to them, first."

"Hm...Okay, you're probably right on that. We've backed them into the corner, so we have the advantage at this point. Though the push we'll get back will be..."

"Bad. I just wonder if the last Tsviet will actually work against us. If she does—I bet she'll be the most dangerous of them besides the one Genesis fought in Mideel."

Freyra turned to look at him in mild surprise as she said, "The strongest of the Tsviets was sent to a place as far out of the way as Mideel?"

"Yeah," Eden agreed in mild amusement. "Why?"

"That's my hometown," she answered, making him blink. "I was worried when they said the Head Hunters were acting strangely—they're hard enough to beat as it is for the average hunter in Mideel."

"I see," he nodded, thinking back to pictures of the preying mantis-like bugs he'd seen pictures of in the monster bestiary for the Planet. His gaze then returned to the street as he asked in amusement, "You were making bets about me?"

"Sure was!" Freyra agreed cheerfully. "Alvis was so sure you weren't such a hot-shot after all and would miss some very obvious things. Tseng was actually in on it, too. All he had to do was just conveniently not mention a couple things, and I think he only went along with it because he was curious, too. He didn't bet, but he was really clear that Alvis was being foolish, just like I was clear to him on that—and you proved us right. Where did you come from, by the way?"

"Sorry, that's a private matter of Rufus'," the blond chuckled.

"Oh, for—! He's still meeting with AVALANCHE, isn't he?" she glared suddenly, giving a huff. "That idiot! We can only hide that from his father for so long."

"Let him have his fun. He's getting better, and so are they," Eden smirked.

"...Already?" she blinked.

"Seriously, all it took was to give as good as he could dish out—and better, because all Turks trump him in skill and strength," the teen replied, then leaned forward as his eyes focused on someone. "I think we've got a hit." He was suddenly thankful Freyra wouldn't have to 'snipe' into crowds of innocent people while using buckshot.

She followed his line of sight, then said, "Don't look directly at him, but keep him in view. He'll know you're there otherwise."

"How far do you want to follow him?"

"Until we can catch him with a few others or until he grabs someone, whichever comes first."

"Got it."

The pair quietly trailed after their target, catching up as he stopped at a home where several children were visible through the windows—an orphanage of sorts. Four others met him there, one of those a woman. Hand signals were their method of communication and they all seemed to be carrying guns. As they were about to split up, Freyra opened fire on them, taking three of the five out with one buckshot—an action which made Eden wince slightly, though he knew this would be one of those times he'd have no choice but to kill his targets. Though, he _did_ have to wonder what the Hell she'd done with her ammo to make the buckshot pellets so explosively deadly.

The other two realized what was happening and dodged to take cover nearby, causing Eden to retaliate with his sword, and it actually took very little of his effort to cut them down (he really wished he didn't have to, despite knowing it had to be done) once he'd gotten behind their cover. It was as though something slowed their movements, making him look down at Ama no Murakumo, where the faint swirls were happening again.

At that moment, he realized if the effect was to slow anyone attacking him, it was entirely possible he and Tseng wouldn't have survived the battle on the President's balcony if he'd had any weapon but Ama no Murakumo in his hands then.

Regardless, the Deepground people were clearly determined to continue doing what they'd been told to do rather than trying to escape—and if they were targeting children and civilians, that was worse. At least he knew Freyra would probably be the one to kill the majority of them, but still...if only he could use his alchemy normally in Midgar so he wouldn't have to kill them...Then again, by Shinra's general method of dealing with things, others would kill them (probably after torturing or further experimenting on them) instead, and he'd pretty much be defeating his purpose. A clean death was better than torture, and it was also Freyra's method of handling them—it seemed to be all the Turks' preferred method unless they had other orders.

"Eden?" Freyra asked as she joined him and followed his gaze to the blade. "What kind of sword is that? Are those illusion stones?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah, they're illusion stones, and this is a specially-crafted blade I got by taking the stones and the other materials to Sieg, the blacksmith near Corel and Gongaga. This is Ama no Murakumo. The only problem is that I have no bloody idea what its skills will be or what that swirl is doing—but I think it might be creating a zone around me or the blade which force-slows the reaction time of attackers," Eden explained quietly, then sheathed the blade.

"Purple stones tend to be weather-related," she told him. "Wind, lightning, rain, that sort of thing. Paralyzing and slowing attackers aren't uncommon effects, but you really found some very rare materials to get that made, and the better the quality of the weapon, the stronger and greater in number the effects. Good luck learning about it, because it looks like it likes you."

"Thanks," he agreed dryly. "So, let's find our next target."

She grinned and motioned him to follow her, then led the way to another rooftop location to watch from. They saw three at once, all heading in different directions, so went cross-eyed before the woman pulled out her PHS and dialed a number.

Soon after, she said, "We just found three heading in different directions." After a pause she said, "Yes." A moment later, she said, "One heading east towards 8, one heading south towards 6, and one heading in the general direction of the Train Graveyard." Shortly after, she said, "Right," and hung up, jumping from her perch to follow one of them—the one heading in the Train Graveyard's direction.

"I take it we're supposed to stay in this Sector and let the others handle the other two guys?" Eden asked as he caught up to her.

"Yeah—Rude and Reno can handle the one heading for 8, and by the time the one heading for 6 gets there, Ruluf and Alvis will be ready to intercept. Also, we have another heading in this direction from 5, but they're going the route which leads past 6 and into the Train Graveyard."

"Ah, so another one's coming this way, anyway. Got it."

They followed their target as three others fell in with the first, again all of them with guns, and they gathered next to what looked like an old bar called 7th Heaven (1). It was in active use, and Eden saw Elfé walk into it, making him mutter, "Oh, shit."

"What?" Freyra asked in confusion.

"We're going in, getting rid of them, and getting out again as fast as possible. And we aren't waiting for any more of them to show up," Eden said.

"I don't think we need to," Freyra commented as she flicked a finger towards the back of the bar. Seven more men had joined the first four. Her expression was tight, showing how little she liked the situation—easily as little as he did, even though she didn't know who Elfé was.

Freyra and Eden traded looks, then he jumped away from her as she began shooting them down. Some people outside screamed, as this was an incident they couldn't really hide, but as the group faced her, she could only take out four, and Eden jumping between her and them to cut three more down in one swing was her saving grace. She jumped back and shot two more as Ed jumped at the last two to take them down, then he spun to face her—and his eyes widened in alarm.

Instinctively, she spun and shot, taking down the nearest man to her, but yelped in pain as flames hit her and she was knocked to the ground by the close proximity of the cast. Healing reached her and she began shoving herself up as three more men jumped at her—but another form jumped past her and a blade sliced through the three. She blinked up at the brown haired woman in green standing over her for a moment before a snarl made her glance over to where Eden and another brown haired man with a bandanna on fought back-to-back against another eight men. Or were a few of those Deepground members women? Also, several at a distance had guns, and most of the ones attacking the men had swords with guns slung over their backs. Some, however, were dressed in something more like a robe and were casting magic.

"What the Hell just happened?" Freyra sighed as she lifted her gun and began picking off the Deepground members shooting at Eden and his battle partner from a distance. She froze as several more men surrounded her and the woman beside her, then shoved herself fully to her feet, ready for battle despite the singing of her uniform.

"I was hoping _you_ could tell _me_ that," the other woman answered, then gave a sharp whistle as she raised her blade for combat.

Before the lady Turk could blink, men and women—the terrorists who had attacked Midgar only days ago—had jumped into the fray, and like a tidal wave, the influx of Deepground soldiers was forced to give way. All Hell broke loose and the street outside the bar turned into a very literal battlefield, the count of enemy soldiers going down faster than their own. (2) However, the Deepground soldiers didn't seem to want to break and run—and some of them began doing some very strange things, from turning into monsters to going into some kind of hyper mode. The Turks and AVALANCHE were pushed back to the wall of the bar, where they couldn't retreat any further.

"Oh, this looks bad," Freyra commented as she and Eden suddenly wound up shoved behind the bandanna man and against the wall of the bar. All of them had begun panting and bodies littered the street.

"Shears, I think we need to stop holding back now that we know they won't run, any of them," the woman commented.

The man sighed and said, "Fine. I'll leave you the left flank. All the stops come out."

"Of course. Go!" the woman answered.

At that moment, both shot forward into the remaining attackers with a force and ferociousness which startled Freyra and Eden both, caused the other terrorists to cheer, and left arcs of magical castings hovering in the air. Elfé had a sword glowing white-yellow—Bolt Blade—which also left the enemies slowed or temporarily paralyzed, which in turn disrupted their hyper mode (most of the ones on her side of the battlefield were using it) and gave her more time to cut them down. Shears, having been on the side with more monsters, was using Demi Blade on his daggers and Quake—Fist?—on his gloves to make quick work of the bulk of those agile and powerful near-behemoths. They were easily whirlwinds with as much skill as the best fighters Freyra and Eden had seen, and they proved it by quickly decimating the Deepground attackers, just the two of them.

"Whoa," Freyra muttered, then lifted her gun to shoot at ones who were trying to get behind Elfé and Shears, giving her about three shots in the five minutes it took for the battle to end and the street to go still and silent for a moment.

Finally, as the first pyreflies began floating around in the area, Eden drew in a deep breath and said to Elfé and Shears, "Well, that sure got hairy really quickly. We really tried to take care of it ourselves, but it looks like the bar was a major target for them tonight. Thanks for your help, and we're going now. Come on, Freyra."

"But Eden, they're—" the lady Turk began.

"It was Elfé who healed you and kept those guys from gutting you. We're pretending we never saw them," Eden said, grabbing her elbow and starting to pull her away.

"Eden, what _was_ that all about?" Elfé asked as the surviving terrorists gathered around her and Shears, who had turned to face the pair of Turks.

The teen paused and turned back to look at her for a moment, then looked away as he debated how much to say. Finally, he said, "Let's just say this is Shinra's version of what Fuhito would create, and we're putting them down like dogs before they get out of hand." He then led a still-shocked Freyra away.

"Eden, what's going on?" she asked after a minute as they got to the train station.

"I was just with them earlier today when Veld called me—they were the ones Rufus went to meet," he told her shortly, then pulled out his own PHS as they stopped by the lamp-post.

"Oh," she stared as he dialed a number.

"What's the matter, Eden?" Tseng asked, sounding tired suddenly.

"The guy we followed led us to a major attack target. Thank God for battle-ready locals, or they would have—done serious damage," Eden said.

"Estimate?"

"I guess there were about sixty Deepground members by the time we were done, all dead, and about half the number of locals who helped us, about ten of whom died. Tseng, even when they knew they were losing, they didn't back down. That data I found for you on their doctrine is truly the way they live."

"Oh, for...Fine, keep an eye out for awhile longer, and if you think you'll be up against more than four, call me before you start. I'll call either you or Freyra when it's time for you to come back in—but I suggest you tell Freyra to snipe any more of them you find while they're alone," Tseng answered, sounding somewhat exasperated.

"Got it," the blond answered, and hung up as he looked up at Freyra. "He said he prefers you snipe them while they're alone until he calls us back, but if they're already in a group, call him first if it looks like there'll be more than four."

She looked a bit amused by that as she said, "Yeah, I'm not all that eager to fight a group like that again, and it's not like we knew that was going to happen. I'll snipe, then. Let's find a good perch."

They headed away to find exactly such a place in the Sector 7 Slums.

CA

When Freyra and Eden arrived back at the building, they found Angeal, Genesis, and Zack standing in the lobby with Rufus, and Angeal looked a little upset while Genesis looked worried. Zack just looked concerned, and Rufus looked thoughtful. As he approached them with Freyra following, Zack saw him and gave a wave, which made the others face him.

"Eden," Angeal greeted him as Genesis also waved and Rufus nodded. "We were just talking about Hojo and Hollander. What happened to you two?"

"Oh, no, what happened _now_?" the blond groaned, rubbing a hand over his face tiredly.

"Should I ask or keep on like I heard nothing?" Freyra asked dryly.

"Do whatever you want, Freyra. As to what we were doing, we were hunting the fake SOLDIERs in the Slums where they've been kidnapping people," Eden shrugged as he dropped his hand—though he kept his voice low so only the group nearest him would be able to hear it. "But what about the doctors?"

"Hojo asked for a blood sample from me, and had a paper giving him approval for that but not turning me over to him," Angeal said, his voice at a similar low volume. "And Hollander interrupted our training to do my regular testing early. It's not so early it would actually be strange for him, but he started asking some pretty peculiar questions, and threw a fit when he found Sephiroth's blood in my system."

"Yes, that point still puzzles me," Rufus commented dryly. His voice was soft as well, so everyone had taken the cue to be quiet.

The others gave wry grins as Eden told him, "I'll give you a few details later on, but right now, I don't have that much time because we have to report in. I'll be back with you in probably about an hour." Rufus nodded, so he turned back to Angeal and asked, "What did Hollander's fit mean for you?"

"Not too much, though he did get more—brutal than he usually does. It was nothing like what Hojo did to Sephiroth and Genesis," the black haired man answered.

"In that case, I need to borrow Genesis for a minute before I go upstairs," Eden said. When the others nodded, he grabbed the older man's sleeve to pull him away from the group a bit as he leaned in close and whispered, "I think Tseng is really worried Deepground will try for you really soon, so he gave me a tracker. Find a place on your person where they won't notice it, even if they grab you in the middle of the night."

"You won't find them soon enough?" Genesis asked in a tense whisper.

"We have a pretty big area to search and haven't had the time to do so, but they're getting desperate enough to willingly risk sixty or so of them in the incident earlier. We're doing the best we can, and if that means going in with only about half our plan because they grab you too soon—that's what we'll do. This is Shinra, though, and you know 'ideal situations' never happen." With that, the teen slipped the tracer from his pocket to the red haired man's hand.

"All right. Thank you for this," Genesis agreed softly, eyes closed against phantom pain as his hands curled into fists, one of them to hide the tracer he'd just been given, but the other in reaction to the thought of what he'd have to go through.

Eden gripped his shoulder firmly for a moment, then turned to head for the elevator, Freyra falling in with him on the way. They were quiet up to the Turks' office room, where Tseng stood leaning against his desk, his PHS in one hand and a photo in the other. He looked up as they came in, and extended the photo to them silently. The two looked at it to see one of Deepground's members using an ID card to bypass a security checkpoint on the train tracks, a slummer draped over his shoulder.

"You were right, Eden," the Wutain sighed.

"I wish I wasn't," he replied.

After taking a look at Freyra, Tseng said, "You should go get your injuries taken care of and get some rest. Let Eden give me your report."

"But those people—" she began, and stopped when Tseng held up a hand.

"Don't worry. We'll work it out, whatever goes in the official report. Thanks for your concern, though," he told her with a faint smile.

She blinked, then gave a wry grin and said, "I should have known you were in on it, since you pretty much always are. Later, then." She gave Eden's shoulder a thump as she turned to head out.

When she was gone, Tseng eyed Eden for a moment before asking, "It was AVALANCHE who helped you, wasn't it?"

"...Yeah. I had just seen Elfé, their leader, go inside as Deepground were gathering to attack the bar, but we had thought there were only eleven of them. I'd planned on taking them out quickly and leaving, but there turned out to be a lot more than that, and some were really durable. Elfé actually saved Freyra's life, and they shoved both of us behind them when we all got backed against the bar wall. I won't punish them for that, especially since Genesis and I have had enough of an impact on them to cause them to look for solutions instead of for ways to kill people," the teen explained.

After a moment, the Wutain nodded and said, "Very well. We'll just say you lucked out in that many mercenaries had gathered at the bar in question, and the drinking and the mercs jumping into battle caused a number of locals to also join in. Such a thing has been known to happen on rare occasions, generally at or outside a bar, so that's fine. Also, with the area so close to the train station, it's a great deal more likely to be a stop-over for people in that vein. None of the other areas had so many Deepground members, and this calls into serious question the sheer numbers we'll have to go up against when we go in. Did you get the tracer to Genesis, by the way?"

"He was in the lobby talking with Angeal when Freyra and I got back, so yes."

"Good."

The man looked so relieved that Eden frowned and asked, "You know something, don't you?"

"...Some intel from a Turk you haven't met yet. He was on guard duty with the President while he was out, and overheard part of the man's PHS conversation. If he's right about what he heard, Deepground has his permission to take anyone they want and do anything with them, and to do it quickly so he can see some positive results instead of failures."

"Hence the reason you and Veld felt tonight was an especially important time for us to go out."

"Yes. And to get that tracer to Genesis. We have maybe a few days before they try for him. I've found one of Reeve's new Cait Sith units and asked him if there's anything he recalls about vents leading down, but his information was pretty vague and dependent on them having not manipulated the vents along with the rest of the original blueprint. He'll get those to us tomorrow. Veld will also see Director Deusericus tomorrow to have him start quietly preparing SOLDIER for what's about to happen. Our time is cut short, so we have to move fast."

"Translation: be ready to be pulled out suddenly. How much can I tell Rufus? He knows a bit, but not enough to understand what's happening."

"I have to leave that to your better judgment, as he seems...protective of Genesis."

"Understood. I'll head back to him, then," Eden sighed.

"Write up yours and Freyra's report, first, then you can go. She'll sign off on it tomorrow when she gets in."

"...Okay."

 **Notes:**

(1) In Crisis Core, Zack helped name the bar by talking to the 'new owner'. That still technically happened in this version, but sooner. He never knew about AVALANCHE making it into their base of operations in Midgar not long after it started up. The 'old bar' is because the building always had been a bar, but had gone out of business some time before, hence the reason the 'new owner' could get it in the first place—it was cheap.

(2) Consider the number of AVALANCHE members present enough to place the odds at somewhere between 3 to 1 and 2 to 1 in favor of Deepground. The real power figures here are Eden, Freyra, Shears, and Elfé, so some of the AVALANCHE people will also be dead by the end.


	55. 54-Slums Re-Visited

Slums Re-Visited

When the blond Turk got to Rufus' home, he found the older teen standing at the window in the largest sitting room. Dark Nation greeted him back by putting his paws on Eden's shoulders to lick his face for a minute as Rufus turned and blue met gold. He said just one word: "Explain."

"That depends on where you want me to start," Eden replied.

"Elfé called me not long ago, informing me of the chaos in the Sector 7 Slums. You mentioned Deepground creating chaos there, and they want Genesis—badly. I want to know what this is really all about," Rufus answered.

After a pause, the younger teen said, "I had found data before joining the Turks which indicated Genesis and Angeal were essentially rotting from the inside out, and that Sephiroth's blood could save them. Apparently, that triggered all the rest of what's happening now. When Genesis and Angeal got blood transfusions from Sephiroth, Genesis also met his sister—Shalua—and went to visit his birth mother's last known home before she died, the same place Shalua and Shelke grew up, the same place Shelke was kidnapped from. While she was originally taken by the Turks, she wound up in Deepground's hands, so I assume the Turks died or we'd have known about the incident. Then again, that may be why Tseng even _had_ a 'Deepground case' from the start, without it having that name at first. Genesis' visit also got him in trouble with the Turks, and got him and Tseng attacked by Deepground members."

"All that from visiting a home?" the eighteen-year-old asked with a frown.

"It was being watched, and only approved people could go there," Eden explained, and Rufus slowly nodded, then motioned for him to continue. "Apparently, no one had really expected Genesis to succeed at defeating them, because he'd been listed by Hollander as a 'failed experiment', but that then pulled up the question of how the prototypes measured up to Deepground's supposedly more advanced and powerful results. Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis were sent on missions just before going on vacation to Costa del Sol where each of them respectively defeated one of the three Deepground leaders sent to fight them. Of those, the one Genesis faced shouldn't have been possible for anyone to defeat, not even Sephiroth—but Genesis beat him."

Blue eyes widened at the words, then he said, "Hence the reason my father signed him over to Deepground."

"Yes," the younger teen agreed. "But they're missing a chunk of intel on the next thing that happened, because that was in Costa del Sol, where two Restrictors and the last of their combat-ready Deepground leaders attacked him. He came close to defeating both Restrictors, and _did_ take one out himself, while I took on the leader and Vant took out the other Restrictor. They don't know we intervened, so I think they're operating on the assumption that Genesis took out all three—himself. That would practically make him a God, and with their reduction in power, and numbers now as well, they'll try so much harder to get him and do it sooner. They've already been grabbing new test subjects from all over the Slums."

For several minutes, the older of the pair considered the words, then gave a small nod and turned around to face the window again. "Can I hazard a guess and say you plan on wiping out Deepground before they get Genesis?"

"Depends on how things play out. If they're now backed into a corner and trying to bolster their numbers, they may try for him before we're ready, or just do a mass stampede through the Shinra building. Either way, we won't leave Genesis to them."

"...And how does Hojo fit in? I still don't understand that aspect of this, despite now knowing he's a bad apple to the core."

"The experiments Deepground does are largely—but not entirely—his ideas taken to advanced levels, and because Genesis was listed as a 'failed experiment', he's up for grabs by anyone who wants him—Hojo expressed an interest, so found out about Sephiroth's blood in his system. He assumed through something Genesis may have mentioned that Angeal had some of those same traits, so got a blood test from him as well—and, of course, got the same results as Hollander got from Angeal. In the meantime, all of Hojo's data probably either goes to Deepground by plan or by hijacking, so there's a good chance Deepground knows about the same things Hojo does."

"How would Sephiroth's blood change their opinions of him?"

"...It's not so much his blood as traits Genesis has in addition to those. If Genesis wants to share them, he'll do so, but Deepground knowing those traits—can't be good, because they would only increase his value to them."

"...Sounds like a twisted sort of compliment."

"It is. One which will lead to torture."

After a pause and a small sigh, the President's son said, "We'd better turn in. I have a lot to think about before I choose my next action."

They did exactly that, both falling asleep in their adjoining rooms fairly quickly.

CA

In the morning, while Rufus and Eden were eating, the young man looked at his younger guard and asked, "Could you tell me something?"

"What's that?" the long haired blond asked from behind his hand as he covered a yawn. Dark Nation was beside him, staring at his plate and licking his lips.

"You're carrying four shards of Zirconaide around with you at all times. Can you truly say that's not doing you any harm after what the one shard was verified to be doing to Elfé?" Rufus asked shrewdly.

After a stunned pause, Eden reared back like he'd been struck as he whispered, "Indirectly..."

"Indirectly what?"

"When the fragments explained what to do to save her, one said something about her life being drained directly rather than indirectly. I never thought of what that would mean for me, but I have been feeling more and more tired the longer I've had them, and the effect has been stronger the more of them I carry. At the same time, if I don't carry them, they can't tell what's going on around me to be able to judge."

"Would they think poorly of you for not bothering to take care of your own health?" the President's son asked critically. "You won't help anyone, let alone them, if you let them drain you as they have been, and I don't actually think they can control that. To me, it just looks irresponsible and careless."

"Gee, I didn't know you cared! I'm so honored, Mr. Shinra!" Eden teased with a grin, chuckling as the older teen huffed. "But it's honestly nothing like that. I didn't realize what was happening. Now I do, so I can work something out. Thanks."

Nodding, the man said, "Very well. In the meantime, life goes on, and I want to know more about that little spat of yours before we knew those shards were pulling on your senses painfully yesterday."

"About...? Oh!" the long haired blond blinked as he realized what Rufus was talking about. He then asked, "Have you ever seen the Slums? Do you know anything about what life is like for people living in them?"

"Do you?" Rufus asked in reply, brow raised.

"I've had to live in those conditions to hide from pursuers. It's not as easy as it looks, especially if you're used to having money."

For a long moment, the older blond was quiet, but then he asked, "Can you show them to me? Escort me—and Dark Nation—in the Slums?"

Blinking, then blinking again, Eden said slowly, "I can, but not if you're going to be dressed in clothing like you're wearing now. Even _I_ won't walk around there dressed like a Turk if I have a choice."

"Would this be referred to as a 'plainclothes operation'?"

"It would."

"How do we get suitable clothes, then?"

"We go to a normal shop and buy pants and shirts off store shelves."

"...They won't fit."

"They will, if you pick the right sizes. Of course, they'll probably never be as perfect as tailored clothes, but they'll fit nonetheless."

For several long minutes, blue eyes fixed on gold, trying to make the gold turn away, to give in. In the end, it was the blue which looked away and gave in, so Rufus sighed and rose as he said, "Lead the way, then."

CA

About an hour later, the pair were stepping off the train in the Sector 7 Slums, both dressed in regular pants and plain shirts. Eden had decided to also go with something from the shop so Rufus didn't feel put out, so chose a pair of black pants and a black t-shirt (it would cover the bracer with the Zirconaide fragments on it, at least) once they'd found a pair of pale blue denim pants and a plain, white shirt with long sleeves for Rufus to wear. Eden had also returned his hair to its braid and mussed up his charge's hair so it didn't look so pampered, much to the older's ire. Regardless, he had to bow to the Turk's knowledge in these matters, so left his hair the way Eden had rearranged it. No one paid any attention to them as the two walked slowly away from the station.

"What was that mess near the station? It looked like a junk heap," Rufus asked quietly as they walked into the Slums, Dark Nation following closely.

"That was the Train Graveyard, the designated resting place of wild Guard Hounds, Ghosts, and decommissioned or damaged train cars," the younger blond answered, then noticed Rufus looking down and aside, his shoulders slumped a bit. "Don't you dare start walking around like that or you'll attract thieves to us."

"I beg your pardon?" the older blond asked in surprise, looking up.

"Chin up, shoulders back. Walk with confidence like you always do. In the Slums, that just means you're strong and know it, so you won't be hassled so much, if at all," the teen informed him softly. The black Blood Taste pressed his side against Rufus' leg.

After a pause, Rufus reverted to his usual manner of holding himself. "I feel bare and exposed here. I hadn't realized my posture had changed."

"If _you_ reacted that way to this place within moments, how do you think it affects the people who _live_ here all the time?"

The words went unanswered as they walked in the direction of the bar the battle with Deepground had taken place outside of. They passed it and continued to the path to Sector 8, beginning a cycle of the Slum Sectors and the no-man's-land between each of the old 'towns'. More than once, Eden had to remind Rufus to stand tall and straight as they went, but they were generally ignored. When they came to the border between Sectors 5 and 6, where there was a small Church (for what religion, no one actually knew anymore), they found a group of men in a Slum version of a suit in brown and blue surrounding a familiar Turk and—Aeris!

"Get out of the way, _Russ_! The Don wants the girl, and what he wants, he gets. You know that! (1)" one of the men surrounding the pair sneered.

"I can't in good conscience leave a child to _him_ ," the Turk replied coldly, drawing two revolvers and aiming them at the men.

"What did _you_ want with her, then?" another smirked.

"Eden?" Rufus whispered.

Suddenly, Aeris' eyes met the blond Turk's, and he gave a slight nod as he mouthed, "Run." In the next moment, he jumped at the circle of men and knocked three of them out, all three between Aeris and escape. She bolted past him, having already been moving when he'd hit them, and kept running as a few more of the men tried to follow her—only for gunshots to take them down.

A shocked silence fell as Eden and Ruluf traded looks, then turned to the remaining four men. They hesitated, then chose to run as Rufus approached them, likely assuming the third would be as combat capable as the first two.

"Eden, how _do_ you do that?" the uniformed Turk asked in exasperation.

"That would be my doing this time," Rufus said as he looked down at the men laying around with a frown, his pet growling at one of them. "What an inconsiderate girl."

"I'd rather she escape unharmed than stay to be harmed," Ruluf answered. "Why are you here, Mr. Shinra, and why did you let him come here, Eden?"

"He wanted to see the Slums," Eden shrugged, lips twitching as he tried not to laugh. "I hope you weren't going to 'capture' her yourself."

"She's one of Hojo's—" the Turk began.

"Don't even go there," Eden practically snarled, shocking both of the other two. Even Rufus hadn't yet seen his emotional state switch so fast or to such an extreme. "He's tortured everyone else in his care! You want to leave a fifteen-year-old girl to him? Are you insane? She'd be better off with Corneo!"

After a long silence, Ruluf reached up to rub the back of his head, then admitted, "I guess you have a point, though I disagree with the part about her being 'better off' with Corneo. I'll pretend I never saw her, then. What about Mr. Shinra? And why aren't you in your uniform?"

"Seriously?" the blond Turk asked dryly, calm again. The other two men had to do a double-take at the again rapid shift in emotions. "Like I said, Rufus wanted to see the Slums, and I'm not the type to keep him sheltered from reality, just to keep people from killing him while he explores. The best way for him to get a real view of it is from the ground, and I don't think he could have followed me across our usual paths here anyway, so the best option was to blend in as much as possible. That meant going plainclothes."

"I see..." the uniformed Turk sighed. "I guess it's not my business. How far have you gone already?"

"From Sector 7 clockwise around the Slums back to here, so we're almost done," Eden answered, and the other man blinked.

"You haven't been attacked in that whole time?"

"Nope. We've been fine, nor have we actually been avoided, either."

"Well done. No wonder Tseng and Veld hold you in such high regard. I'm glad you're one of us or we'd be in big trouble..." Ruluf said almost reverently. He then checked the time on his PHS and said, "I'd better go, though. I have another job I'll be a few minutes late for as it is."

"Good luck, then," Eden waved as the older Turk left.

"...I feel like there's a joke in this somewhere," Rufus commented dryly in amusement.

"It would be nice if there was," the younger blond snorted.

"Hey, get back here!" someone yelled from nearby, making them both turn to face the way they'd come—only to see the girl sprinting back to them and looking both frightened and put out. Rather than how she'd bypassed him last time, Aeris snatched Eden's arm as she ran past, whirling to swing around him and hide behind his back.

"This is the worst day ever," she sighed tiredly. "Make them go away, Eden!"

Rufus' brow rose as Eden chuckled, but as her new pursuers came around the corner of the nearest junk pile, both blonds sighed. "Now I truly feel there's a joke in here somewhere," Rufus stated.

Elfé and Shears traded raised brows as their attendant band of terrorists waited quietly for word, then looked back at the blonds with a clear question in their gazes.

"What do you want with the girl, Elfé, Shears?" Dark Nation sidled up to Aeris and pressed against her legs, so she absently petted his head with the hand not holding onto Ed.

"We know Shin-Ra's looking for her, so we were going to take her back to Wutai to keep her out of their hands," Elfé answered. Aeris peeked around Eden's arm at the other woman, and Elfé added, "And I'm starting to think there's a joke in here, too. Circumstance can only be circumstance so many times."

"Welcome to my life," Eden shrugged. "And I think you might want to change your tactics when it comes to saving people who aren't on Shinra's kill list. If you have to act immediately or the person will die, go ahead and grab them out of harm's way, then ask them if they want to go back to Wutai with you. If they're not in life-or-death danger, you'd have better luck talking with them if only one of you approached them to do just that—talk. Make your offer and let them choose to take it or not. Aeris has reasons to stay here and protectors of her own."

"You?" Shears asked with a raised brow. "Wait, why do you even know that girl?"

"Tseng considers her a younger sister so is actually very protective of her. I'm one of the ones he trusts with her," Eden replied.

Rufus held a hand to his head tiredly. "And you just turned Ruluf into one of her protectors, too. This isn't coincidence. Too many coincidences are no longer coincidence, but a conspiracy."

"If it is, it's not mine. Believe me, if I had that much power, I'd be ruling the world already, not babysitting a brat," the younger teen retorted, reaching over to flick the older blond's forehead. Aeris dissolved into giggles, but stayed firmly planted behind Eden with Dark Nation pressed to her legs. Elfé's lips twitched as well, and Shears shook his head tiredly, but Rufus glared and rubbed his forehead where he'd been flicked.

After a moment, when she had her giggles under control, Aeris asked, "So, exactly who are they, and why would they want to take me to Wutai?" Her grip on the blond teen's arm had loosened, but not let go.

"Elfé and Shears are the two remaining leaders of a group of eco-terrorists called AVALANCHE, though since finding out about Chaos and Omega, they've decided to try fixing things instead of just destroying them. Their main goals now are to rescue people Shinra is after and to try finding a new, reliable and non-damaging source of power," the long haired blond explained to the girl hiding behind his back, and she stood straight so she wasn't leaning on him anymore. "Since Wutai is the last stronghold not under Shinra's power, they're planning to bolster Wutai's defensive forces and use the country as a refuge for people Shinra is after, either to kill or to—use for other things. They really do feel they're helping you, not kidnapping you."

"Oh. This would have gone a lot better if someone had just come to our door and asked to talk with us," Aeris said dryly, linking her arm through Eden's as she stepped up beside him. "I can't guarantee we'd have gone with you, though."

"Why not?" Shears frowned.

The girl gave her head a shake and said, "Tseng is like my brother. He's been protecting me for years, even from other Turks, and I don't want to leave him on his own with no one to turn to so he can just...set it all aside for awhile. He can't leave the Turks, and with the way things are going right now, I don't think he would be willing to risk leaving, anyway. Unless the whole Lower Plate is going to be crushed, I'll stay here so he knows he's still got a refuge of his own. Besides, no one else will take care of the flowers." At the last sentence, she pointed to the old Church.

As Shears was about to refute her, Elfé touched his arm, stopping him. The older brown haired woman then looked at Aeris and said, "In that case, Eden is right and we don't have any right to force you—and your mother—to leave when you aren't in direct danger. What I'd like to do is arrange for you to stay in contact with some of our local people, possibly one of us directly should one stay while the other goes to Wutai, just in case something changes and you need help to escape on short notice. Will that be acceptable?"

Aeris turned to look at Eden as she asked, "Are they trust-worthy?"

"As long as you're not dealing with Fuhito, who left AVALANCHE recently, yes. Shears and Elfé will keep their word and won't try to move you unless they really feel your life is in immediate danger," he answered, meeting her vivid green gaze evenly.

After a minute of meeting his gaze, she slowly nodded and looked at the eco-terrorists. "Okay, I'll stay in touch with you. Do you know the house by the flower fields in the Sector 5 Slums?" Both leaders nodded, so she went on, "I live there. Right now, I don't have anything like a PHS, so you'll have to just drop by every now and then, but try not to be too obvious or you'll attract attention. We don't get lots of company."

"Fair enough," Elfé agreed, then made a hand motion which caused most of the terrorists to scatter. She led the rest away to whatever destination she had in mind, and Shears broke off from that party to start scaling the trash heaps.

When they were out of sight, Aeris looked at Eden and said, "Walk me home." (2)

"Okay. But why?" he asked with a blink.

"Because I don't want anyone else trying to capture me—that's a Turk, Don Corneo's men, and eco-terrorists, all in less than an hour!" she complained with a pout, sighing as she let go of his arm. "Oh, but come see the flowers here, first!" she said, looking more cheerful at that thought, beckoning the two blond men towards the Church doors, Dark Nation on her heels.

"...Eden, why does Hojo want a perfectly ordinary girl?" Rufus asked in confusion as the two men followed her and Dark Nation into the Church—and stopped to stare at the flowers growing in the mud where a section of the Church floor had broken open.

The younger blond pointed at the flowers and asked, "Her getting those to grow in the Slums is 'perfectly ordinary'?"

Rufus strode over to where Aeris was kneeling, watering the flowers and gently running her fingers over the leaves and petals while she hummed softly to them, the black Blood Taste laying down beside her with his nose in a patch of flowers near the edge. The eighteen-year-old watched for a minute, then turned to look back at Eden, who shrugged as he sat on one old pew arm. Finally, he looked back at the flowers and said, "I don't think I've ever seen real plants before, let alone in a place like the Slums." The girl looked up to smile at him, then went back to her work.

When she finished, she rose and said, "We can go now!"

The two young men and Dark Nation walked her back to her home, then finished their circuit back to Sector 7 and returned to the Upper Plate.

 **Notes:**

(1) Don Corneo's men would have known him quite well, as he used to work for Corneo before joining the Turks.

(2) This is me sort of tipping my hat to Aeris' habit of getting strong men to walk her home, like Cloud and Zack. And, of course, she always makes them wait while she finishes with the flowers in the Church.

I still wonder what religion that Church belonged to when there's no noted religion at all in FFVII...I can only speculate the Church once having belonged to Minerva directly by the fact that flowers grow there with pretty much no light.


	56. 55-Opening Salvo

**A/N:** Sorry, some people may find the first half of this a little boring, but I preferred to include it than not so people can get a better feel for Rufus' head-space at this point. The really important part of the chapter starts about half-way through with Genesis and the SOLDIERs.

Opening Salvo

It was two days later and around mid-morning when Rufus, again dressed in his normal, white suit and black shirt, suddenly huffed over the papers he'd been working with and rose, saying, "Come on, Eden."

"Where are we going?" the Turk, also back in uniform, asked as he followed.

"To talk to someone who will have some idea of how to work out the real details, not the made-up crap my father records," Rufus glared, leading the way out of the home as he pulled his white suit-coat on. It didn't escape Eden's attention that Dark Nation had been left in the manor, so it was a place the hound couldn't normally go.

"Okay...Not that you've answered my question, really, since I have no idea what you were just working on or what 'real details' you need," Eden answered in amusement.

The eighteen-year-old didn't answer, just gave his younger guard an amused look and kept going, heading for the Shinra building. Not long after, they were stepping out on the sixty-fifth floor, where the President's son simply bypassed all of the secretaries and went right to the largest office, shoving the door open to reveal an office with a lot of desk space covered in models and schematics. Behind the desk, one schematic in hand and a model by his elbow, was a familiar man in a navy blue suit, clean-shaven and with black hair at about twenty-eight. (1) He stared up at them in shock as Rufus led the way in and plopped himself down in the chair sitting opposite the man's desk. Eden shut the office door, then took up a position beside and behind Rufus' chair, bemused and curious by this turn of events.

Slowly, Reeve set down his schematic, then looked at Eden and gave a nod, getting one in reply, then his gaze moved back to Rufus, who had raised a brow at the exchange, as he asked, "To what do I owe the honor, Mr. Shinra?"

"Long story short, I want to fix some of the chaos and abhorrent living conditions in the Slums, but I don't have enough real data or the technical know-how. Money shouldn't be an issue with how much of it I have, but even Eden said it's not a good idea to just hand out money to the people on the lower Plate," Rufus said.

Eden clapped a hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing as Reeve's eyes widened in shock. A Cait Sith unit jumped up onto the desk from the floor behind it and said, "Sounds like a jolly good idea, Laddy!"

Rufus looked at the cat, then looked back at Reeve as he asked, "How many do you have now?"

"Number 3 was destroyed and 1 is only still active as an alert system to keep Shalua safe—and for entertainment value—so my only technical active ones are 2, 4, and 5. This is 2," Reeve explained. "And Eden is right to say giving them free money is no good. They need a hand _up_ , not a hand _out_. Give me some kind of idea of what you were even considering doing and I'll tell you how feasible it is, with the understanding that it would be pretty much impossible to fix it all."

The President's son eyed him for a moment, then nodded and said, "The main things I noted from a trip there the day before yesterday—" The words caused the older man's brows to raise into his hairline. "—Were the housing conditions and the ever-present trash heaps. It's like they're living in a landfill, not a city. Sewage seems lacking as well, but trying to do anything with that may destabilize the pillars supporting the upper Plate. Food, clothing, other things like that, I can't really do anything about, but getting them working would go a long way towards fixing those as well, I daresay."

Sitting back in his seat, Reeve considered the younger man for a minute, then said, "So you're saying you want to give them jobs which are necessary and pay them enough to keep them properly clothed and with food on the table, while giving them decent housing, is that a fair assessment?" When Rufus inclined his head, the older man said, "It's doable. I would do it myself, but your father considers that a 'waste of good money' and would withhold my bonus funding if I tried to go that far towards fixing the Slums. You, as an independent contractor, can hire people to work on projects for you without reporting to your father. Are you really sure you want to proceed, knowing this is no short-term project you'll be funding?"

"I am. I wouldn't be here if I hadn't already made my decision, Reeve," the younger man pointed out dryly.

"Fine. Here's one problem I'm sure you didn't think of," the older man said. "It only takes so long to build things. What jobs will those people do once there's nothing else to build?"

Rufus blinked in surprised, then frowned thoughtfully as he contemplated the question, finally looking up at the man again as he said, "There would need to be other jobs for them to take. How can that be done?"

"By allocating the correct types of facilities in the correct proportions. However, you'll probably get your allowance cut off if your father finds out, so I would suggest you start many small projects anonymously with paper files rather than traceable electronic files. The Turks have ways and places to hide paper trails, and some of them came from the Slums, so I have no doubt they'd help if you planned to work on it the right way." He then rose and said, "Come with me."

Rufus rose to follow him, Eden trailing behind as Reeve led the two blonds to a room with a scale model of Midgar in the middle of it. He closed the door, then went to the model and said, "This shows the zoning used to make sure the upper Plate was essentially self-sustaining, other than with its food supply. Red marks on buildings are residential, blue are commercial, and yellow are industrial. (2) What kind of breakdown do they have—across the whole Plate?"

Both younger men looked at the buildings, many of which had colored markings in one of the three colors Reeve had stated. Eden realized right away what the percentages were, but said nothing as the older blond continued to examine the scale model. It was a complete model, even though not all of it had been built yet, so it showed all of the zoning, intended as well as current.

Finally, the President's son looked up and said, "There is the most residential, followed by industry, then by commerce. But how many people live in each building, Reeve? My father and I are the only ones living in a building this size, along with a few servants to prepare meals and keep things clean." He pointed at a small housing complex as he said the last.

"You don't live the way the average person does," Reeve answered. "The building you're pointing at houses approximately fifteen families of three or four members each. For them, the space they have is sufficient, and these are good quality buildings. Many of those people are children who aren't working, nor do I feel they should have to—go to school, yes, but not work. Commercial buildings certainly employ people, but not nearly as many as industry employs, which is why it has the smallest percentile. Also, having too many shops can be just as detrimental as not having enough of them, since too much choice means the funds available have to go to so many more sources and it gets spread thin. The problem is that industry is polluting, and the Slums are polluted enough as it is, so despite the benefits, there are drawbacks to it as well."

"...Surely there are ways to reduce the pollution they emit?" Rufus asked darkly. It was obvious he hadn't accounted for that aspect in his previous plans.

"There are. Assuming the owners want to spend extra money to implement them and keep them up to date," Reeve agreed. "Of course, since you're the one giving them the funds, you can stipulate that they _must_ account for those things in the plans, and you'll be the one to cover the cost."

At the words, the younger man's brow rose, but he nodded and said, "So the pollution can be greatly reduced. Am I safe to assume the general percentages are fifty percent residential, thirty percent industry, and twenty percent commerce?"

"Somewhat. The specifications vary also by the type of each you have. Low density of any of them take more space than middle, which take more than high. On the other hand, no one in the Slums can afford high class housing like the sort you live in, which is low density housing, so immediately, that's not possible. Your local population is already set in place—the main issue is that they don't have appropriate housing or the commerce or industry to keep most of them working, regardless of density. You need to house everyone, then bring in appropriate quantities of the other two to balance them so most of the adults are working. Understand?" Reeve asked.

For a minute, the younger man gazed thoughtfully at the model, then said, "I believe there may be a very good source of industry, and a source of independent power so they don't have to rely on Shinra to keep their power on. It would give them more money for the things they need to buy, like food and clothing. Other plans of mine will tie nicely into this if what you're saying is true. Quality of housing, then—low grade means low quality, and they'll be back to residences little better than shanty shacks in short order, which is what I don't want."

With an amused sigh, Reeve said, "Pay attention to my words, not your assumptions, Mr. Shinra." When Rufus frowned, the black haired man asked, "I used the terms 'density' and 'class'. What do those terms mean?"

"...Density would be...in relation to the number of people in an area, and class would reference a social stratum sharing basic economic characteristics, I suppose..." Rufus replied, looking puzzled by the request to define the terms. He then blinked as he thought back over the previous discussion and said, "In that case, the people in the Slums are low class, but the structures we want to build for them need to be sturdy, and we already know the general population density below the Plate is higher than the one on it. Then...housing density being low means it would house fewer people, but high density would fit more—as your example of fifteen families living in a building the size of the Manor here in the city. Quality, then."

"If you want to build housing out of sturdy, durable materials, you can do so, and I would encourage you to do exactly that. Your father builds things out of metal—which isn't really great for housing—or expensive materials. Expense isn't the key to quality, functionality is. For example, oak and pine are both simple and cheap woods, one harder and one softer. Both can be used in building, though pine is more often used for interior work such as flooring because its resistance to the elements is less than oak's. Particle board, which is essentially glued-together sawdust, is a good part of what buildings in the Slums are currently built with, and while it's cheap, anything built with it is no better than a shanty shack. Particle board is the cheapest, but oak is far from an expensive wood—there are many woods more expensive."

"Mahogany," Rufus said right away, and Reeve nodded. The younger man crossed his arms and said, "So, let me get this straight—we could have a perfectly sturdy, good quality house built of oak, which would have been much cheaper, but my father built with mahogany because why? It was more expensive so he assumed it was better quality? Why is it more expensive, anyway?"

The older man looked amused as he said, "It's more expensive because it's rarer than oak. There's no other reason. And yes, you could have had a home every bit the quality of the one you currently live in built out of oak, but your father wanted to show off, to display his wealth. Mahogany makes a better furniture wood than a house-building wood, but that doesn't mean it can't be used that way."

"And it means I actually could build good quality, cheap housing for the people of the Slums if I use something like oak as the main building material," the President's son concluded. When Reeve nodded, he said, "I can work with that."

"Was there anything else you needed today?" the black haired man asked.

"A few odd details on things like population estimates—real ones—for the Slums, which you can send to my PHS when you have time. I'll forward you a list of technical details I want in order to work on this. In the meantime, I should let you get back to work." The blond teen gave him a wave and walked out, forcing Eden to run to keep up with him as he went down to the banking floor to get a total accounting of his funds and assets. The two then headed back to Rufus' home.

CA

At supper time the day after Rufus visited Reeve, Genesis sat with Angeal and Sephiroth in the cafeteria, all three of them eating as they looked through the available mission lists for the SOLDIER forces. After a few minutes, Zack plopped down between Angeal and Genesis as he set his own tray down and used his fork to poke something on it that just looked like a brown lump. He then looked around at the three men, who were mostly done eating by then and saw the PHS's all of them had in hand. A quick glance at Angeal's made him grin faintly at the list.

"Anything interesting on the First Class lists?" he asked as he started eating.

"Nothing more interesting than the Second and Third lists," Genesis answered, then sighed. "Eden really meant it would be soon."

"The full-scale route of Deepground, you mean?" Sephiroth asked. When the red haired man nodded, he said, "The Director called us into a meeting with Veld two days ago to give us details and start working out a plan. You were on a mission then, but it could not wait. We are mainly relying on the Turks, just as Tseng and Eden thought."

"But the mission lists the Director set up are very interesting all the same," Angeal commented, looking a little amused. "He found a good way to hide what it was preparation for."

"What?" Zack asked in confusion.

"Have a look at the missions you can take as a Second, Zack," his mentor replied dryly, so the boy did, quickly finding the list on his PHS.

He didn't see anything odd until he started going into them to look at the write-ups, but then he blinked and looked up. "They're all—maybe someone outside SOLDIER wouldn't recognize it, but when you look at the short write-ups, they sound like battle assignments, not missions."

"Right," the man said. "Because that's what they are. It's all preparation for the coming battle against Deepground. You and I are going to be on the front lines, Puppy, so I think you should take a break from the Mastering until we get this battle over with. You'll need all that energy and more."

"Do I sign up, then?" Zack asked, holding his phone up a bit.

Angeal shook his head. "I'm already assigned, and you defaulted to my assignment. The only one here who isn't assigned is Genesis, and that's because we don't even know if he'll be available to take part—we may be reacting to him being taken. I hope not, but these days..."

"After the incident in the Slums Eden told us about, things are likely to go very bad very quickly," Genesis finished. "And that will only take care of Deepground, not Hojo, which means the President may just start the whole project over again."

"Speaking of..." Sephiroth began quietly, his gaze troubled as the others looked at him in concern. "SOLDIER was meant to be an army of monsters. I was the first success, and that concerns me, because everyone in SOLDIER was supposedly based on me from that point on. Mako cannot do what I have the ability to do, so the only way it works is if they are also being infused with Jenova's cells—which would explain what set Hojo off when he found out his work in Shinra Manor had been destroyed, but leaves open another question—how does SOLDIER continue _without_ Jenova?"

The others stared for a minute until Genesis looked away and said, "It does, and he can. The reason why the results of my blood test put him in a good mood was because we had unintentionally saved his project by doing what we did. Your blood can continue to produce SOLDIERs. Maybe...mine and Angeal's can as well, because we all have Jenova's cells in us, and with him knowing about my wing...He may just try to do something like breed ground soldiers and aerial ones using us as the basis."

Zack and Sephiroth looked a little ill as Angeal reached over to rest a hand on Genesis' shoulder. "I'd like to think he'll be short-term as well, considering Eden's the one he pissed off when he hurt you." (3)

When Genesis didn't answer, Sephiroth said, "Either way, things cannot stay as they are for much longer, and if that means we take some actions ourselves, then so be it."

The black haired man looked at him sharply as he asked, "Did you just suggest we take matters concerning Hojo into our own hands?"

"Maybe," the silver haired man said, not really answering the question, but leaving the distinct impression that he had indeed just done exactly that.

Genesis gave a faint smile as he commented, "I'm a little surprised you didn't do anything sooner, Sephiroth."

"Oh, I had contemplated it, but I was under the impression at the time that he was my father. Horrible or not, could you really bring yourself to kill your own father? That takes a kind of strength I do not have," the younger man admitted. "Also, I was so used to living that way that I never really realized anything was wrong with it until I was entered into the SOLDIER program here officially. Seeing what he did to you pushed me to the edge, a line I can now cross because I know he is not my father."

"Protective much?" Zack asked the silver haired man in faint amusement, holding a hand up in a surrender position when said man shot him a glare. "I mean that you didn't care enough about yourself to act, but as soon as one of your friends stands to suffer, you actually make an effort to do something. Do you think that little of _yourself_ , General, or are you just the really, really protective sort? I hope it's the latter, but..."

The others all stared at him, shocked by his insight, but Genesis rose and said, "I'm going to bed early tonight. Hopefully, things will go in our favor."

He then left to head for his room, where he got ready for bed and picked up his copy of LOVELESS to read for awhile. Ever since Eden had handed him the tracer, he had been dressing in sleeping shorts and a tank top, hiding the tracer in the waistline of his underwear, covered by both the waistline of the shorts and the bottom hem of the tank top. Unlike his usual clothes, his shorts were red and his tank top was blue, an azure-like color which nearly matched his Mako-blue eyes. In the end, he read LOVELESS until he fell asleep, the book slipping from his hands.

CA

The next thing Genesis was aware of was people grabbing him, dragging him, lifting him, pulling him. It hurt and he struggled against them as much as his still half-asleep mind could manage, which wasn't much, especially when they were keeping a painful grip on him. He vaguely saw (and felt) them take the stairs down more floors than he was capable of counting while thrown over a man's shoulder. Soon after, he was suddenly thrown against a solid wall so hard the wind was knocked out of him, causing him to slump to the ground—and force himself away from the wall as he felt it moving against his back. While he was struggling to get his breath back, he managed to look up—

To see the two men in the black uniforms and helmets of the Restrictors against a backdrop of an octagonal-shaped lift descending in a spiral, a lift which had no walls, so was causing a draft as it moved. A glance at the track behind the lift showed a single rail acting as its anchor and main motion device.

He no longer had any doubt of what was going on.

As he started to push himself up, one of the Restrictors slammed a fist into his gut, knocking him back down. "That was for Nero."

The other Restrictor kicked him in the side of the head and said, "That was for Weiss."

Back to the first one, who kicked his thigh just above the knee, then said, "That was for the first Restrictor."

And so it went on, another blow with another 'crime', in a list which was clearly just excuses to hit and kick him. The words might have had more meaning to him had they stuck to things he'd actually done, or could have been mistaken to have done, like Nero, Weiss, and the first two Restrictors, but they even tried to blame him for things they knew the Turks, Sephiroth, or Angeal had done. Then again, if they stuck to things he could have actually done, they'd have run out of excuses way too soon. As it was, they hadn't even reached the bottom of the lift when he got tired of the false excuses.

"If you're going to beat on me, at least be decent enough not to bother with pathetic excuses!" he snarled at them.

They traded looks, then smirked and attacked him with impunity, leaving him black and blue and nearly unconscious by the time the lift stopped. Of course, his sense of time seemed warped just then, and it could have taken an hour or a minute of being beaten severely to reach the bottom. One of them grabbed him and they began by crossing through the lift's lower entrance room, pausing each time the one not carrying him put in necessary access codes—three times that he noticed. It was a rough ride for him, though, so he had resorted to gripping the man's belt just to ground himself a bit.

He was carted down the main road, and as they passed with him, a hush fell, making him glance around as much as he could manage—if he was seeing the actual number of Deepground members, there were more of them than anyone had thought. Well, maybe Weiss' estimate had been on the low end of accurate. He hoped Eden and the others had compensated somehow, because if they hadn't, they were all screwed. Thanks to the map Weiss had drawn for them, Genesis could orient himself pretty well and track where they were going, but the facility map didn't do justice to the sheer size of the place. The most unsettling part was how they seemed to have a faintly red-glowing light coming from the Reactor, and it gave a peculiar sensation of being in an oven with red-hot heating elements, though the space wasn't very hot.

Finally, they passed through the gate of a walled facility—the experimental area, he was sure—into the building, and to a room with a bunch of tables, benches, tools, and what was likely an experimentation table. The last was in the middle of the room and was where they threw him down, quickly strapping him down as he fought again to try to get away.

If only he had his Materia, if only he had his sword, if only he had something he could draw an array with!

By then, his desperation was so great he cast Demi 3 on both Restrictors, even without his Materia and so close to a Reactor, though the worst of the damage deflected off one while the other was hit full force. Was that effectively the result of a Limit Break?

Regardless, the result towards him was painful, as the one who had weathered it well used several new and very painful forms of torture on him just to hear him scream, and the other joined in as soon as he had recovered enough to get up. No matter how much he didn't want to feel the pain or scream because of it, the agony was so bad it overwhelmed everything else.

 **Notes:**

(1) Just a reminder that this is the younger Reeve who hasn't grown a goatee and mustache yet.

(2) For this part, I'm mainly using the basis of SimCity for the SNES, with a few points from SimCity 2000 for the PC—I KNOW THIS ISN'T VERY ACCURATE, but I was trying to get the point across in terms which would be understandable without turning it into a study on economics or poverty. I didn't need it to be absolutely accurate to get the general points across, and I have no intention of spending huge amounts of time talking about these things—suffice it to say Rufus is working on them, and readers will occasionally get updates on how that's going.

(3) This is intended to show a certain amount of mental issues nearly everyone in Shinra has—in short, that most of them don't know/realize their own true degree of power, they feel Shinra has power over them because they've been taught to obey or—die. Angeal is latching on to Eden's disregard for authority (since Eden has a regard only for people he respects) and is using that to express his own desire to do something when he feels he can't.


	57. 56-Launching the Attack

**A/N:** The next few chapters are heavy on the Turks, so anyone with doubts about who's who should probably check the 'List of Current Turks' to make sure they know all of them. The only Turks not present for this are Rude, Kariya, and Maur, and nearly all the Turks have a section of the Deepground Raid focused on them. And be warned that the Turks have some time to kill, so don't take their behavior too hard!

As amusing as the guest comment was (since there's a certain amount of roundabout truth to it), that was never meant to make Eden 'the Shinra Mom', it was to show a certain amount of mental issues nearly everyone in Shinra has—in short, that most of them don't know/realize their own true degree of power. Angeal is latching on to Eden's disregard for authority (since Eden has a regard only for people he respects) and is using that to express his own desire to do something when he feels he can't.

Also, people were SUPPOSED to take more away from the fact that Sephiroth actually pretty much said that if things don't change soon, he'll kill Hojo himself—something the original Sephiroth never would have (and never did) considered. Like, "Oh, so this time, he's actually going to DO something!"

Launching the Attack

Eden was woken by his PHS ringing, making him answer tiredly, "Yeah?" He didn't even know who was calling at that point.

"Eden, get over here, now! It's time to take on Deepground," Tseng ordered, then hung up.

The phone fell from his hand as he laid there in shock for a minute, but Rufus' voice asked, "Something serious happened, didn't it?" Dark Nation whined from nearby, too.

When he looked up, he saw the older teen dressed in his pajamas and a robe holding his PHS out to him, Dark Nation beside him. They had come in from the door to the adjacent room, which was Rufus' bedroom. Eden took his PHS as he pushed himself up and said, "The only reason I'd be called in for the route of Deepground right now is because the worst happened and they took Genesis." He started dressing in his uniform, working quickly to get himself ready to go.

"I trust you'll bring the Commander back safely, then?"

"As safe as possible. Alive, but—it's Deepground. He'll have been tortured to some degree by the time we get to him, no matter how fast we react now."

"I see. Do what you can. But Eden, you'd also better come back alive and well."

"That's the plan. Thanks, though."

Done dressing, Eden ran out, hearing a bark behind him as he headed for the Shinra building. It didn't take long for him to get there, where a black haired lady Turk was waiting at the doors to let him in.

As he stepped past her into the first floor lobby, where SOLDIERs and Turks were swarming, she said, "Tseng needs us in the back, where the hidden lift is (1). We're three Turks short because they're on missions, and Veld is helping the SOLDIERs coordinate." She had her short hair in a similar style to Ruluf's but in a smoother and more elegant form and without shaved designs. Like Ruluf, she wore her uniform informally, but while she also wore no tie, her shirt was fully buttoned and her jacket was worn open, and she looked like she was nineteen or twenty.

"Okay. Am I the last Turk to arrive, then?" he asked. She nodded and they both headed to where the Turks had gathered around Tseng. Eden saw Reno, Freyra, Ruluf, Emma, Alvis, Cissnei, Quis, Vant, a black haired man with glasses and a scar down his left cheek, and a woman who had long, dark silvery-blond hair falling freely down her back. Veld was off to the side with Sephiroth, Angeal, Zack, and the blond man who was the SOLDIERs' Director, Lazard.

"Good, you're here, Eden," the Wutain said. He then addressed the group, "Reeve did what he could for the vents out of the lift shaft, but he could only give us what he recalled from his memory, and that's only assuming they weren't moved. We can't do anything effectively with them from here, and once we get into the 'town' area, we're all going to be on our own, but there should be things like vents, sewers, maintenance shafts, and pipes linking various buildings. Since we're going to have to manipulate the lift to get in unnoticed, we're going to be the last ones going in. Try to stay paired, but in the event you're separated, have your headsets on and active at all times. I'll activate the networking, and Reeve has let us borrow a Cait Sith unit to maintain communications even underground, where our usual signals may not normally penetrate. What we aren't likely to have is contact with the surface other than through Cait Sith."

Everyone present began pulling their PHS's out as a Cait Sith stepped forward from behind the Wutain, and soon, they all had the headsets on, active, and linked.

"Now, Veld has said he'll keep two volunteers with him, but that means the three of you will be joining the SOLDIER assault on their main entrance," Tseng said. "In other words, your fighting skills, not your stealth, will be put to the test, and you'll be in frontal combat for the duration. You'll also be in the opening salvo, with the General, Commander Hewley, Second Fair, and any other Firsts set for the first group. Don't take the role lightly. Once we've penetrated deeply enough, we'll be coming up behind them to pick them off."

"Is anyone exempt from staying on the front lines?" Eden asked.

"You," Tseng said immediately, fixing him with a gaze which clearly told him not to argue. "I'm counting on your luck to get in as deeply as it's possible to get, come Hell or high water. I'm also counting on you to destroy their Central Command, to free anyone who can be rehabilitated, and to end the suffering of the rest. Knowing what kind of temperament you have, I'm sending Reno with you so he can keep you from doing something stupid because Genesis is a personal friend of yours." Everyone looked amused by the words as a wry-looking Eden moved over to stand next to Reno.

The Wutain man then looked around at the others and said, "That negates Reno by default. I'm also negating those whose weapons are primarily ranged. Cissnei and Illis (2) still qualify to stay with Veld because their weapons work in close combat as well as ranged. That means the two aforementioned ladies, Judet, Alvis, Balto, and Quis. They'll be heading out as soon as they have our choice."

There was a silence, then Alvis said, "I'll stay with Veld. My rod's Pyramid (3) ability can help with crowd control, and you obviously won't have Reno to help out that way, so..."

Before anyone could respond, the black haired man with the scar and glasses said, "As much as it would be entertaining to pick them off from behind, I'd prefer a frontal assault under the circumstances. And if your point is to make them think the Turks are also heading in from the front so they don't look elsewhere, my speed burst will help with that. (4)" The man's hair actually greatly resembled Zack's in both length and style (though Zack's was longer), and there were some similarities in their looks, besides the fact that the man was about twenty-one to Zack's sixteen. His eyes were blue.

"Thank you Alvis, Balto," Tseng said, nodding. "Go join Veld, then, and the rest of us will get to work with our operation."

They nodded and headed over to the group where Veld and the General were. It didn't take the first group (several other Firsts joined them) long to step into the lift while Director Lazard started arranging groups of twenty, Firsts mixed with Seconds set to go down first, then Seconds mixed with Thirds, and finally, some Thirds on their own. He also kept two Seconds and a group of ten Thirds to secure the lobby. (5)

The Wutain then faced the other Turks and said, "Ruluf and Emma, I need you to head to the housing area to free anyone who can be saved—I'm not holding out much hope for that, though. You've both seen the map of Deepground, so I trust you know what you're looking for in that regard. If you can only clear the housing area by the end of the operation, so be it, and if you have time, head to the Labs to back up Eden and Reno." They nodded and moved to stand together, so he added, "Cait Sith is staying with me, and I'm going to find a good place to snipe as many as I can who rush the entrance, holding a middle ground to coordinate us as needed, to the lift side of the Reactor." More nods were the response.

"Vant and Cissnei, you're the most combat-ready of the Turks present, so I expect you to bypass the battle zone and start attacking from behind. Illis and Judet, wipe out their supply storage, then join Vant and Cissnei—the last thing we need is to leave them access to enough weapons for a day-long battle. Finally, Freyra and Quis, take up sniping and guard positions as you make your way through the facility, and destroy anything you come across which you know is bad news—labs, test samples, whatever you think could help them or help Deepground reform. Be thorough, and remember to help out any of ours you come across on the way." Everyone nodded and moved into pairs, so Eden could see that the black haired woman was called Illis and the long haired silver-blond was Judet, who had brown eyes darker than Freyra's and looked like she was about twenty-three or twenty-four.

At that point, Tseng pulled out maps to check them, then handed them to Freyra and Quis. "Now, if Reeve's plans weren't changed too much, there will be vents in multiple locations down the lift shaft, and we'll need the ones four and five down, so that's where we'll be aiming for. The fourth down should take you past the battle zone before taking you to the inner wall, so that's where Eden, Reno, Ruluf, and Emma will need to get off. Good luck, everyone, and be thankful Reeve can still control the lift, or we'd have a hard time getting into place. By the size of the lift, we should all be able to go down at once." He clapped Eden on the shoulder and said, "Your team and Emma's will be the first ones getting off, so will have the most time to get into place. Don't waste it."

"Got it," Eden agreed wryly, and Reno gave Tseng a grin and a thumbs-up.

Tseng nodded and went on, "For anyone who hasn't seen the Deepground map, take the chance to look at it now—except Reno, because Eden knows it by heart, I'm sure."

Reno burst out laughing as Eden made a face and said, "Of course. Let's all just assume I'm super-human."

"Aren't you?" Cissnei asked with a straight face. All of the Turks burst out laughing (or just chuckling, depending on their natures), which prompted most of the Firsts, Seconds, and Thirds to look at them with confused frowns.

Director Lazard commented dryly, "It's nice to know _some_ of us are having fun."

"We have a long time to wait to head down," Tseng answered as dryly. "If we don't relieve our tension somehow, we'll get too trigger-happy—and believe me when I say we'll defeat our own purpose if we do that."

The blond man considered the statement for a minute, then nodded and said, "Fair enough. I know some of the Seconds and Thirds are getting agitated with the necessary wait. I just hope the General and his group had the sense to wait for a couple more groups to get down there before announcing themselves."

"Circumstance. They may not have been able to," the Wutain replied, and a number of the SOLDIERs traded concerned looks. "Oh, that reminds me, not all of the Turks have officially met Eden and Vant yet." He turned back to his fellow Turks and began introductions, leaving the SOLDIERs even more confused. The only thing they could really make out was that Vant hadn't met most of the Turks yet, but Eden had met all but two of those present.

"Eden sure gets around, doesn't he?" Judet asked in a dry tone, causing Freyra to laugh as Vant gave a small, amused smile.

"That's one way of putting it," Vant agreed.

"And that's not the half of it!" Freyra added, still chuckling. "The stuff he gets caught up in is just—amazing."

"Like Rufus says, 'there's a joke in here somewhere'," Eden chuckled. "Because it's true my luck is abnormal since I got to Fort Condor. I'm of the opinion someone or something is trying very hard to fix things, so is putting things in my path, or putting me in the paths of people and things, to make those changes. How that's apparently impacting people like Genesis, though, I could do without."

"I know you found both Phoenix and another Summon at Fort Condor when we headed back to Midgar, which would rather support the thought," Tseng commented.

"Two of them?" Quis blinked in surprise.

"Yeah—before that, Final Attack and Enemy Skill," Eden snorted. "Also there."

"Final Attack is really rare..." Illis muttered, shaking her head. "How many others have you found?"

"Er...Everything from Odin to Ultima to Mirage to Deathblow—do you really want me to keep going?" the blond teen asked dryly.

All of them stared at him with their jaws hanging open. It was actually Reeve through Cait Sith who asked, "Doesn't that actually make you super-human?"

"No. That just means the Lifestream likes me," Eden answered dryly. "And anyway, some of them aren't on me because I've given them to others to use, like Sephiroth, Rude, and Genesis." He then blinked and looked at Tseng as he asked, "Could I run up to Genesis' room to grab his Materia and sword?"

The Wutain blinked, then nodded and said, "You're staying here because you don't even know where you're going. Reno, go get the named items and anything else you think will be useful—I'm sure he'll need a change of clothes."

"Got it," Reno agreed, then turned to head to the elevator to the upper floors.

"Assuming he's in any condition to get dressed," the blond sighed, looking away as his fists clenched.

The red haired Turk was gone a moment later, and Tseng reached over to grip Eden's shoulder again. "The sooner we get him out, the sooner he'll be fit and healthy again. That's what we're aiming for." The blond just nodded in response.

"Tseng, we're almost done," Lazard said from nearby, making them look up to see that only two groups of twenty—well, one was a group of nineteen—were left besides the stipulated guards.

With a nod, Tseng said, "We're just waiting for Reno to get back, so the timing should be about perfect."

"Good luck, then," the Director said to the Turks as a whole. They all nodded, so he went back to the SOLDIERs.

The Turks began working out some basic plans for their descent. When the redhead rejoined them, the last group of SOLDIERs had just gotten in the lift, so the others filled Reno in on said plan. He agreed with them and they moved to the lift to wait for it to come back, even as Lazard moved away to talk with the two Seconds who had stayed behind.

Finally, it was time. The lift had come back, so all the Turks got on, Eden, Reno, Cissnei, Vant, Ruluf, Emma, Tseng, and Freyra each facing a side while the others just stood in the middle. Cissnei was the first to see a shaft, so said, "Vent one," producing a nod from Cait Sith. She counted each out loud as the lift descended, and when she said, "Four," it stopped. Eden, Reno, Emma, and Ruluf climbed up into the shaft and the rest kept going down to the one below, which would hopefully take them all to where they needed to go.

CA

Genesis lay on the examination table, still bound to it and his body and wing a bloody mess as he drifted in and out of darkness after the Restrictors had left. A soft sound like pattering feet reached him, but until a small hand touched his arm, he didn't—or couldn't—react to it. The hand was gentle, and he heard a soft, sad sigh, prompting him to turn his head slightly and open his eyes—to see a small, red haired girl with Mako-blue eyes and dressed in a steely-gray body suit with dark blue arms and legs and glowing, azure blue, horizontal lines running down its length.

"Shelke..." he whispered, and her eyes widened as she met his tired, pained eyes.

"...How...?" she whispered in shock, and he knew what she was asking.

"Shalua was...looking for you...I met her in...Midgar, and...we had a blood...test done. The doctor said...she's my sister...so you are, too," he explained softly, voice rough and breath limited by his pain and the earlier screaming.

At first, the girl just looked stunned and confused, but then tears fell from her eyes. "This is because of me. What they did to you was because of me!"

"No," he whispered. "You didn't torture...me. No...not your fault."

His eyes closed as he focused on Minerva and traced the Limit Break path they had activated with the wounds they'd caused him. He could have used it for judgment, but that wouldn't really help him now, so he traced it further—and connected to a being which flashed through his mind as an armored and robed woman with long, white-gold hair. As he followed the path a little further, he found a new Limit Break, and it suddenly felt like he was being caressed.

Softly, he intoned, "Gift of the Goddess...grant me your blessing...Restoration..."

Light flashed, causing the girl beside him to yelp as energy flooded through him. He felt the worst of the damage to his body healing, but knew it wasn't nearly everything and he'd still have a Hell of a time just moving. What it would do, however, was give him a protective bubble which would prevent further harm for a time. He somehow felt the effect would change depending on the situation and circumstances, and he was sure he wasn't being fully healed because the rest of the energy had to divert to that shield.

Opening his eyes to look at Shelke again, he saw that she'd backed up a couple steps and raised her arm to shield her face. "Shelke," he said quietly, his voice in better shape, and she slowly lowered her arm to look around with a worried expression.

Finally, she realized no one else was there, so looked back at him and said, "It looks like your wounds stopped bleeding. What was that?"

"A new Limit Break," he smiled faintly. "I'm so glad I found you. Help is coming."

She shook her head. "That's impossible. No one came, no one came, time after time it was just them. No one can come."

"Shelke." She slowly met his gaze, Mako-blue to Mako-blue, and the red haired man went on, "Help is coming. Eden and Tseng never break their word, and Sephiroth and Angeal are my best friends. Deepground made a fatal mistake when they tried to take me, because too many people now want them dead. Let me free so we can do our part as well."

"...Our part?"

"To try to escape. Maybe to help find and free others like us."

"But you're hurt so badly!"

"And it'll hurt like Hell to move, but I'd rather that self-induced pain than any more of what the Restrictors dished out, or what the doctors will do."

The girl looked away for a minute, then looked back at him to ask, "Is that really...the way to look at it?"

He gave her a small smile and answered, "I'll choose my own fate. If that means fighting even when I'm in pain, then I'll fight, but I won't just let anyone torture me. Maybe I'll lose, but even then, at least I tried. Giving up isn't an option—otherwise, you may as well just die. I don't think you're actually ready to give up, or you wouldn't have come to me in the first place, would you, Shelke?"

Blinking twice, tears ran down her cheeks again as she said, "I couldn't fight alone."

"You aren't alone. Honestly, you never really have been. We've been here the whole time, searching for you, trying to find where you were and gathering allies to get you out of here," he told her gently, smiling at her. "We'd have come to get you soon, anyway, but them taking me just sped up the process."

Her searching gaze met his, then she whispered, "You're so strong, to go through all that and still be able to care, to smile like that...about someone you've never met..."

"That strength is inside you, too. Find it again," he answered. "Let's leave here."

After a silence, she reached up and undid the cuff and strap holding one wrist to the edge of the bed. The first thing he did was lift his hand to rest it on her head for a minute, then reached across his body to undo the far cuff and strap. Shelke also moved over to remove the strap from his ankle on the side she stood on.

As the strap slipped through her fingers and opened, a voice said sharply, "What do you think you're doing, Shelke?" The girl jumped and whirled to face a woman in mostly white, the uniform similar to the SOLDIER one, but covered with a long top and a sword in silver and black designed like the SOLDIER standard-issue blade. The helmet covering her head had a crown-like design which covered her hair and there was an eye patch over her right eye, but her skin tone and features looked Wutain. (6) Her good eye was Mako-blue like Shelke's and Genesis'.

"Argento..." Shelke murmured, backed tense and trembling against the examination table, where Genesis had just sat up to undo the last strap. He paused to watch the exchange, something about the woman making him hesitate to call her an enemy. Either way, by what Shelke had called her, she was the weapons-crafter for Deepground and the last of the Tsviets, regardless of the title being only semi-formal.

"You heard me, Shelke the Transparent. What are you doing? Answer!" the woman demanded coldly, taking another step forward.

The girl drew in a sharp breath as she looked away for a moment, then apparently made a decision and shoved herself off the table as she looked back up at the older woman. She met Argento's eyes and said clearly, "I'm leaving with my brother. You've been training me to fight. Maybe I won't win, but at least I'll have tried."

For a long, tense moment, the woman met the younger girl's gaze, but this time, unlike previous times, Shelke didn't give in and look away. She was afraid—it showed in her eyes—but she was also determined.

"It's about time you grew a backbone," Argento said, causing Shelke's jaw to drop, then the woman looked at Genesis. "I heard your discussion. If it's true, I've bided my time for long enough and it is indeed time for us to fight back. We'll never get another chance to escape if it isn't now, when SOLDIER for certain is fighting to free us."

"The Turks and SOLDIER—and the head of the Urban Development Department," Genesis told her. "If you're willing to rejoin society peacefully, we'll welcome you. Things are changing, and we need everyone we can get, everyone who wants a better life for everyone."

Argento nodded. "I've done what I could to ease things for the new ones being brought in here, like Shelke, but there was only so much I could do. I've never shown my true strength, but if this is it, count on me. I want to be free of this place as much as both of you."

"In that case, do you know of others who can be rehabilitated as well? Especially ones willing or able to fight?" the red haired man asked.

"Most have died or their minds have broken, but I know of three in nearby rooms," she said, moving over to release the last cuff from him and help him up.

 **Notes:**

(1) In case people missed this—Genesis was wearing a tracer when they took him, so the Turks had the location OF THIS ENTRANCE and were able to open it up.

(2) Illis = Knife (female).

(3) Pyramid is the name of the ability in the main FFVII game (original version) which places one of your party members in frozen 'defeated' status unless you break the Pyramid by attacking it. Yes, Reno does this to the party when you fight him. Since Alvis uses the same weapon, he has the same ability to use.

(4) I have this view that Balto almost constantly uses Haste in battle when we aren't playing him in Before Crisis, and Limit Breaks are known to increase speed, defense, and strength when not producing some fancy attack or heal (those sorts are actually supposed to be rare). Given his 'speed' basis, all of his Limit Break power went to his speed. He's also got a Mirage Materia, though it's not specifically mentioned here.

(5) After doing extensive research, I found out that not only had the Restrictors technically been Firsts (or equivalent to), but there had been a group of SOLDIERs who were ranked just below Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal—the group called Ragnarok—who were Firsts. There is only one General, and there are only two Commanders, but there are more Firsts than just the three of them or Ragnarok wouldn't have existed at all (some people write stories where these 3 and Zack are the only Firsts, period). My number estimates are along the lines of 10% Firsts, 30% Seconds, and 60% Thirds, and there are a few hundred of them, but I'm not specifying numbers. The lift moves quickly—faster than an elevator would travel the same distance, as shown by how fast it goes down in Dirge of Cerberus, and that was the one from the President's office, which traveled further. That number having to go down all at once is the reason it takes so long for the Turks to get their turn to go down.

(6) I added the part about Argento being Wutain, mainly because Deepground was known to have taken people off the Shinra-Wutain battlefield, but we never 'see' Wutains in their ranks, and something about her appearance always made me think she was literally a Wutain soldier, not a Shinra soldier, taken off the battlefield. Don't ask me what, it's just one of those things that seemed to connect in my mind, and there's no actual data saying she's NOT Wutain, so...


	58. 57-Stages 1 to 4

Stages 1 to 4

The first thing Eden had done was find a division in the vent path and called back, "Emma, Ruluf, take the right-hand path here!"

He had then led the way through the vents to the left as the teen glanced out into the areas of Deepground he could see from the vents to orient himself. They moved further and further along the wall, bypassing the chaos they could have intervened in as they sought out the Central Command and the experimentation facility. It was narrow in there, and they had no urge to do much talking. Rather, they could hear Tseng's orders, though the link system didn't allow anyone but their human connection point to hear what was going on around each. None of Tseng's orders were directed at them, so they just concentrated on getting to Central Command as quickly as possible. During the process, they heard an alarm ring five times, like Weiss had told them would happen if the attack was serious enough at the main lift entrance to Deepground.

Finally, the blond teen found the large building they first needed and carefully removed a grate so he could drop the fifteen feet to the rooftop at the very edge of the roof. He was at the door soon after and opening it, even as Reno joined him on the roof, and they quickly headed down the stairs, walking as softly as possible. On the stairs, though, Reno could hear a strange shift in the blond's gait and wondered why his left side _always_ came down harder and with less precision than his right.

After a bit of searching the building while dodging technicians, they found the actual command center where the mainframe was and realized there were quite a few people there. Reno led them back to a building vent they had passed not long before and handed Eden a smoke bomb (1) he could throw into the room to clear it out, so Eden again climbed through the vents to reach the room in question. At least it was a short trip, and by throwing the smoke bomb from the vent to hit one corner where something was flashing red, everyone quickly cleared out. Eden jumped down from the vent as Reno stepped in from the door the technicians (and anyone else who had been there) had left through, which had actually been a side door, not the central one.

Rather than going right into destruction mode, Eden began accessing the computer files, and Reno had to wonder why he didn't seem to know what he was doing. Oddly, though, Eden figured it out quickly enough to find what he was looking for (maybe he was making a mountain out of a mole-hill and Eden's issue was no more complex than trying to work with a new, unfamiliar system), even as the red haired man began setting bombs on other consoles.

"Intruder!" someone yelled suddenly, causing Reno to spin—in time to see Eden's shoulder explode as the teen screamed in pain and fell to the ground, pushed by the force of the blast.

His gaze sought out the one who had launched the bomb, and lit on a man in a doctor's coat as the man ran towards the console and Eden from the main exit, a knife in his hand and a sadistic, maniacal grin on his face. Using Pyramid, which rather resembled a glowing, yellow pyramid, he stopped the man in his tracks, eliciting a snarl from the 'doctor'. It didn't take much to smack the man over the head with a high enough electrical charge to fry his brain, killing him.

Tseng asked over the headsets, "Eden, Reno, what happened? I heard an explosion and a scream."

"Tseng, seems we had some unexpected company, yo," Reno answered quietly as he took a quick look around. Assured no more were in the immediate vicinity, he turned to Eden and cast Cure 3, healing most of the damage. Some remained, and there was no way to repair the obvious hole in the teen's clothing at the shoulder, but it was enough for the blond to start pushing himself up—only to suddenly shove Reno aside as he drew his blade. The red haired man yelped, then faced the teen as a clash of metal on metal sounded, and he found Eden straining against a large man with a large sword. He was dressed in the blue and gray body suits the Deepground members wore.

After a momentary pause, Eden activated his Demi Blade—and the other man's sword was crushed, along with him taking some fairly severe damage. As Eden jumped at the man with the intent to finish him off, the man suddenly swung around, catching the teen in the chest with his longer reach and slamming him against the wall. Eden groaned and Reno activated Pyramid again, finding it rather amusing how everyone was missing him completely as soon as Eden was in their sights. It was almost like the poor kid had an automatic target attached to him. Either way, once the man was trapped, it was easy enough for him to kill that man the same way he had the first, and he caught the teen as he slipped to the ground with the dead man.

"Thanks," Eden said to him once he was on his feet again, reaching up to grip his injured shoulder for a moment.

"You got a fricken target attached to ya or somethin', because that's twice I was completely ignored, yo," Reno answered with a chuckle.

The teen snorted and said, "Everyone's jealous of blonds, I guess."

Reno howled with laughter and went back to setting bombs as Tseng said in a frustrated tone, "Eden, Reno, report!"

"Tseng, have everyone else watch the doctors for bombs and knives, because that was what got me on the first round. The second was a Deepground guy, and he didn't actually do us any damage—Reno just yelped when I shoved him out of the way. We're fine," the blond answered as he began setting bombs.

"Eden, you almost got your arm blown off, yo. That's not 'fine'. You'll need a hospital stay for sure when we're done," Reno said dryly.

"Eden..." Tseng groaned.

"Tseng, Reno fixed most of it, and it's really not that bad," Eden answered in exasperation. "The man came up from outside after we'd cleared the room. Anyway, I've had worse and still done my job." Right then, he was thinking of the building collapse where he'd met those two human-chimeras, when one of the collapsed poles had shot through his side and pinned him to the ground. The thought of what would have become of him if the chimeras hadn't helped him made him shudder, a motion Reno caught. Though, he had other incidences in mind as well, such as the battle against Greed before he was attached to Ling.

"Reno, is he fit to keep working?" Tseng asked.

"Tseng, he seems to be fine, yo—since he did a good job against the second guy, who must've heard the explosion 'n' headed this way," Reno answered.

"Fine, Eden, Reno, continue on with your orders. No more mishaps like that, though, or I'll have to call you back. Don't be so careless," the Wutain man said, then went on to say, "Cissnei, keep back from the enemy and let Vant intercept— _believe_ me, he can take the hits."

Reno and Eden traded amused looks and finished setting their bombs, ignoring the rest of the orders Tseng was giving as they were for others. They then left the room, found a fire alarm to pull, and headed to the main floor leisurely as they let the building clear of people from the alarm. They quickly found the central room and each corner room, setting high-powered explosives in each.

As they were bolting from the front door of the building, the first explosions sounded, and as they got into the nearest visible pot-hole, they felt the ground tremble as multitudes more followed in a roaring wave. A shock wave flowed over the pot-hole and the ground gave a yank which almost made them fall to the ground from the ladder, but a quick look above-ground showed the facility reduced to burning rubble giving off several streams of thick, black smoke.

"So, labs now, Eden?" Reno asked once they'd climbed down into the sewer. Both made faces at the smell.

"I checked the system for a bit of data before blowing it up. If we start here, there should be another three pot-holes to various places in the lab section, which actually has two separate buildings. If we climb out of one of the rear ones, we should be able to find a vent into the main building where the labs are," the teen said.

The red haired eighteen-year-old nodded and said, "Gotcha. Lead the way since ya know where you're going, then. How many survivors do ya think we'll find, yo?"

"We'll be lucky to find eight, including Shelke and Genesis," Eden sighed. "Not that only eight are still alive—only eight are still sane, and they haven't actually recorded sanity or lack thereof for Genesis yet, so...I'm going to assume he's still sane since he knows we're coming."

"Okay, so let's start takin' care of this crap, yo," Reno answered, motioning the blond to lead the way. Eden did, discreetly rubbing his sore shoulder again.

CA

Ruluf and Emma found a vent which exited at the border between the common area and the residences, where they were past the fighting but could still hear it. When they first found the vent, however, they couldn't climb out of it until most of the rush of people ended after five rings of an alarm had sounded. Everyone was heading to the main road and the common area the combat noise came from, and the rush didn't take long to stop, so they dropped down to the ground and started checking the buildings for any stragglers or just people who hadn't gone with the rest.

"So...you think that alarm was the one Tseng mentioned a few weeks ago?" Ruluf asked in mild amusement.

"Who knows? It cleared most of the area, though," Emma answered as they were stepping out of the tenth empty home they checked. "This place is more clinical than our rooms were when we were first assigned them," she added, looking concerned.

"Yeah, it's pretty depressing," he agreed, giving his head a small shake.

Right then, an explosion sounded and a huge shock wave rocked Deepground, making them stumble and grab the wall to stay upright, and a glance showed dark smoke rising from Eden and Reno's watch. They traded looks as a few more doors opened and there was the sound of running from down the side streets. Both drew their guns and aimed towards the sound, fairly certain at least some of those runners were headed in their direction. Shortly after, they were proved right as three men and a woman came around a nearby corner and pulled up short.

"So, are you attackers or people we can rehabilitate?" Emma asked, ready to pull the trigger.

It was a good thing, because they were under attack a moment later—not by enhanced people, but by an armored, behemoth-like monster and someone who could enter a kind of hyper-mode to move too fast to be seen. She dodged on pure instinct and felt a blade slice her cheek as she shot the blur passing by her, and sheer luck caused the bullet to hit a fatal target. The man collapsed and died, though the monster was a great deal more problematic. In the time it had taken her to shoot her attacker, Ruluf had managed to take one of its eyes out, but guns were useless against metal plates.

However, as the monster reared with the intent to slam its front claws down on Ruluf, she saw the metal plates on its chest spread and separate, leaving holes and gaps in its armoring. She had no time to think, so aimed and shot in an instant, targeting as close to its heart as she could—and causing it to flinch and roar as it dropped to all fours. A moment later, she felt something strike her side and only caught a glimpse of its tail as she was tossed to the ground down the street, ribs smarting, where she rolled several times before coming to a stop. To be honest, the Turks' specialized training to loosen the body and absorb blows was the only thing that saved her from broken or crushed ribs.

"Emma!" Ruluf yelled, knocking one of its teeth out with a lucky bullet—and causing it to charge at him. His saving grace was his street fighting while working as one of Don Corneo's bodyguards, as his instinct to dodge a charging monster was to duck, slide, and roll under the attacker to come up behind them. In that case, however, he also got a random swat from the tail as the beast collided with the house wall, causing him to slam against the wall of the house opposite where the beast had hit.

A moment later, he heard a snarl of pure agony from the beast and looked up to see Emma holding her dead opponent's sword as she jumped back from the beast—and he noted one of its horns laying on the ground, where it had been broken off at the base. The monster was unbalanced, and blood began dripping from its mouth as its good eye turned dull and glassy. The woman then jumped forward again to bring the sword blade down on the base of the thing's other horn, shattering it off as the monster gave a pained howl and collapsed as it twitched erratically.

"Say what?" he asked her blankly.

"If all else fails, go for the base of the horns, because that's the weakest spot on any horned animal. Who would have thought Elena's Academy lessons would be useful here, of all places?" Emma asked in faint amusement. Ruluf had to chuckle.

"Are you okay, though?" he asked in concern.

"Fine. Sore, but fine. You?" she asked in return.

He touched his ribs and gave a wry grin. "Sore but fine." He then looked further down the street to see what had happened to the other two and made a face.

"Looks like the monster killed them for us," Emma commented, following his gaze to the two crushed bodies laying on the street not far away.

"Is that actually a beast's mentality, or plain insanity?" he asked as he shoved himself off the wall and holstered his guns.

"I'd bet on insanity," the woman replied, retrieving her gun and holstering it while keeping the sword in hand. "Looks like those two used guns, so when we come across another blade, we may want to each keep one of these, no matter how little we technically know about using them."

"Got it," he agreed. "We'll keep an eye out."

A quiet voice asked, "Did you come to free us?" making both turn to face the street corner opposite where their attackers had come from—and found themselves looking at a young man in the Deepground uniform, without a helmet and looking hopeful.

Trading looks, the Turks met his gaze again and Ruluf said, "If you're willing to live peacefully in society, yes. We're trying to free everyone we can right now, so if you want that chance, come with us, help us free others who are still sane—who can still be saved. This will be our, and your, only chance."

The man nodded and said, "The ones still in their residences are the ones who don't want this—to be here, to do this. I know where most of them are."

"Lead the way, then," Emma agreed with a nod. The three made their way through the housing area, quickly finding most of the people remaining there with his, and their, help.

CA

Freyra, Quis, Judet, and Illis all climbed out of the vents just past the main battle zone in the commons, then parted ways, the first two to wreck havoc on anything they could find and the latter two to do the same to the storage buildings.

There honestly wasn't much to find in most of the buildings until Quis opened a cupboard in the cafeteria and pulled out a strange bottle with liquid inside it and no label. When he opened it, the smell didn't take long to reach them both—and Freyra knew it as a substance the people in Mideel used to contain and control beasts and monsters, which actually had neither taste nor smell once added to a liquid. She told him to blow the whole cupboard up, which he gladly did.

Not long after, a building near them pretty much crumbled as it spat out fire and thick, black smoke. There was nothing left of it, meaning that was probably the supply storage Illis and Judet had been told to take care of. Soon after that, as they were heading for their next area of targets, they heard an alarm go off, sounding five times before silencing. As they were stepping into a building, a rush of Deepground members came up, heading for the lift, so they turned to face them as Freyra shot into the passing group with her shotgun.

When they noticed her, several detached from the rush and Quis moved to meet them in battle. With Quis keeping them back using his nunchaku, Freyra was free to target and shoot them, getting headshots on five while the blond with her took down three. Of course, to do that, she actually had to switch to the emergency handgun she kept on her because Quis was still too careless in his movements to keep out of the wide-range spray of her buckshot. In truth, she hated using the handgun—since she'd met Eden, she'd only used it twice, once to test Eden's reflexes and again now. Maybe she should suggest close combat Turks take lessons on staying out of the way of the weapons of the ranged weapons Turks...?

Once the mess was taken care of and there was no one else to shoot, the two kept going on their task. The next place they found where they could destroy things was the training center, where they blew up the storage rooms attached to each independent room and completely destroyed the VR systems as well. While they worked an explosion sounded, followed by a shock wave which made the whole area jolt.

From there, they headed deeper into Deepground, rather than towards the battle on the main streets, a battle which was rapidly spreading and had already taken to the rooftops as well as the streets themselves. They knew the Reactor also had the meeting room with the Throne in it, but while they couldn't exactly blow up the Reactor, they _could_ see if there was anything else worth destroying. In the 'building', they both looked around, seeing some odd pools and pathways around the outer edges of the room but little else besides the Throne.

"I guess we move on," the woman shrugged, turning to leave.

"Hey, let's blow up the Throne," Quis said suddenly. She turned back to look at him and was surprised to see him smirking faintly. "These people think they have power, they think they rule us. Destroying the Throne is both a psychological attack and a statement that we won't accept their power or their rule. Though I guess with the changes lately, that will make the President panic, too."

"Huh," Freyra blinked as she realized the truth in the words about the President. From her perspective, though, they were going to make the man panic just by destroying his pet army. "Go for it, then, Princeling," (2) she chuckled.

He made a face at her, but went to the Throne to set a bomb. When he'd retreated to the door, he triggered it to go off, and both of them felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing it splinter and burn.

"Okay, you're right. Watching it go up in flames felt good, so I can imagine what they'll think of seeing the symbol of their power destroyed, assuming they ever manage to make it back here," Freyra said as they stepped out of the room. Quis chuckled.

From there, they kept working their way through the areas of the underground town, setting fires in most of the buildings they came across and noting the black smoke trailing from the remains of the large building which had once been Central Command.

"Think that's Eden and Reno's doing?" Quis asked softly, staring at the trails of smoke as they crossed to the lab gates.

"I'd bet on it. Let's keep going—the labs will probably be hairy enough for them to need help, especially with Eden injured," the woman said, continuing to the gates to work on getting them open.

"I can't believe he made a mistake like that, though," the younger man answered in amusement, giving his head a small shake.

"It just means he's human after all," she chuckled.

"...I guess I have to give you that," Quis admitted, then noted some crates which had been hastily dropped by the wall further down. "Think we could climb the crates?"

Looking, Freyra saw the crates and grinned. "Sure thing! It'll be faster than trying to get this open when I'm not Reeve!" He nodded and smiled, then they both climbed the crates and jumped over the wall to land in the lab area.

CA

Everyone in the battle zone had heard the alarm ring five times, and awhile later, they'd heard an explosion and felt a shock wave which made the whole area rock, creating a momentary pause in the battle. Cissnei had been keeping her distance and throwing her shuriken since Tseng had told her to let Vant take the hits, and she found herself surprised by how well her battle partner did indeed take hits. Assuming the hit even connected. Most of the time, Vant was able to dodge at the last moment, so not only was she not being targeted, but trying to target him was a rather difficult task. Not long after the explosion, Judet and Illis ran up, Judet jumping straight into battle alongside Vant while Illis stayed back with Cissnei to throw her knives.

Suddenly, Tseng said into their headsets, "Vant, Cissnei, Judet, Illis, it looks like the last two Restrictors will reach you shortly from behind. A rush of people will reach you at about that same time, though Freyra, Quis, and I have taken some of them out."

"Tseng, understood," the four all replied instinctively, then blinked as they realized exactly what their commander had just told them.

As their weapons returned to their hands on attached wire threads, Cissnei and Illis traded looks, then turned to face behind them, bracing for the coming battle. Vant and Judet jumped back from their last few opponents, drawing them away from the group struggling against the SOLDIERs further down the street. Once the last three were down and no new ones were coming, the two landed beside the women and also turned to face down the hall.

"Can we actually take on the Restrictors?" Illis asked softly.

"There are four of us and only two of them, assuming we can get down the numbers of the rush," Cissnei answered. "We'll manage."

"I also have a—skill which will help against them if it's needed," Vant said, aiming his gun—and shooting as the first person came around the corner. The new arrival went down as he aimed again.

"Right," the black haired woman agreed, holding two knives in her hands in a fighting stance. Judet took up a similar stance, but without the knives, as Cissnei threw her shuriken and Vant shot bullet after bullet into the crowd.

Shortly after, Judet growled, "Let's go, Illis!" and jumped into the approaching attackers, slamming into them with fists and feet.

Illis followed suit, slashing with her knives and taking someone out every time she struck. Neither realized the Restrictors had passed them—until they heard a yelp from Cissnei. When they turned to look, a mere glance before they had to go back to their own opponents, they saw a man dressed wholly in black including a mask with a spiked crest holding her wrist and another one deflecting Vant's attacks.

In a sudden move, Vant jumped at the one holding Cissnei's wrist, kicking the limb so hard he broke it and the man was forced to let go of the red haired lady Turk. She wasted no time in sending her shuriken at him, which knocked him back against the wall, but he retaliated with a Quake-like attack which separated the two and slammed them back against opposite walls of the street with yelps of pain. They weren't sure what level of Quake it was, because even if it had been Quake 3, it had been too strong for an average such cast, but it hadn't had the form of Break.

At that moment, Judet and Illis finished with the rush, thankful that they had all seemed to be normal (enhanced) people with no particular special skills who hadn't used guns to fight them (or hadn't had time to use their guns, at least). They turned to jump at the Restrictors just in time to keep them from advancing on Cissnei and Vant, who had slumped to the ground as they struggled to get their breath back.

Judet could easily keep the man with the broken arm busy, but Illis knew the one she fought was just toying with her. The faint smirk she could see under his helmet just confirmed that thought—

And it pissed her off.

All it took was one slash of her knife blade which slid across his neck shallowly for her to suddenly find herself thrown to the ground, and a heavy SOLDIER-like blade coming down towards her. Vaguely, she heard someone shout her name—

There was a tremendous roar which shook the nearby buildings as the sound of a heavy thump reached her and she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. There was a mostly midnight blue-purple, wolf-like, behemoth-like monster standing over her, the Restrictor held against the nearest wall in one of its clawed paws. It had a flyaway, burgundy mane, long, black horns, an upright stance, and a long tail, but only stood maybe six and a half feet tall, slender and covered in fur and muscle. She'd have been worried, except she could see intelligence in its glowing, yellow eyes, and she knew it was targeting the Restrictors. A glance at Cissnei and Judet let her know they had seen something which had given them oddly constipated, fully stunned expressions. The one person she couldn't see...was Vant.

...Vant was a shapeshifter?

Both Restrictors turned to strike the beast, one of them with blade skills and the other (the one with the broken arm) with a magic she thought was Flare. The beast was forced back against the wall as both of the now-injured men shot at him with furious yells, but Illis acquired a tick of her eye in anger.

No one discarded her!

Shoving herself to her feet, she saw the beast use some kind of slash attack which knocked back and unbalanced both opponents, so she took her chance and slammed her knives into her attacker's windpipe and his gut. When he tried to lift his hands, she pulled the blade from his gut and slammed it up through the bottom of his chin instead. A glance at the other man showed Cissnei's shuriken slicing his head off, her hands guiding the blade expertly.

Before anyone could say anything, the beast had jumped into the battle between SOLDIER and Deepground again, taking out more of the Deepground members.

"...No wonder Tseng wanted Vant here, if he can shapeshift like some of those other guys," Judet commented as they watched him go. Cissnei and Illis just nodded, then regained their senses and rejoined the battle themselves.

 **Notes:**

(1) Everyone in the Turks is carrying bombs with them except Eden because he got there late and the bombs had already been passed around. Reno, Emma, Ruluf, Vant, and Cissnei didn't have many on them, Reno the ones for the building (small and high-powered, with a couple smoke bombs as distractions), and Emma, Ruluf, Vant, and Cissnei only a couple emergency ones. No one here is using the kinds of bombs Kariya uses, and since he's not there, none of these are 'unusual' types, merely functional.

(2) Quis came from a wealthy family, so Freyra is teasing him a bit.


	59. 58-Stage Last

Stage Last

Genesis, Argento, and Shelke had gotten into the other experimental rooms nearby and found two of the three the woman had known about. Genesis had managed to get his feet under him by the time they'd gotten to the first room, and the pain wasn't actually as bad as he'd thought it would be, so he was able to hold himself up with just Shelke's shoulder to brace his hand on. For their purposes, that lent credibility to their method of helping people escape from the Hellish prison Deepground was.

Because Argento was with them, there was no fight, she simply called the one she wanted forward for a 'special project' and led him out of the room he had been in. It was in the hall where they informed the young man that this was their last and only chance to escape, if he wanted to take it. He did, so joined them on their trip to find others. With four of them, they had a better chance, especially when Genesis found both Shelke and the young man had Materia shards on them—Materia he immediately confiscated, knowing he'd be able to use them. Only Shelke retained her Shield Materia, and he now had Lightning and Time. Not his favorite ones, but they'd do.

As they were heading to the second room, they heard the alarms, which caused Argento to say, "They're warning of infiltration and attack, telling everyone except those literally given approval to rest to go to the entrance. Those would only be used if there were a large number of powerful attackers."

Shortly after, they reached the second room and let another young man out of it, who also agreed to join them, letting Genesis take his Ice Materia. As they made their way to the third room, there was the sound of an explosion as the whole facility rocked, making all five reach out to brace themselves on walls.

Argento's lips pursed as she said, "Well, it seems your allies have gotten in as deeply as they could get, Genesis."

"You could tell where it came from?" one of the other men asked in shock.

"Only one place would have done that, and only with some very powerful explosives—Central Command," the woman answered.

"That's good. We'll have their help soon, then," the red haired man smiled, brushing his hand over his bruised-black eye and cheekbone, one of the most prominent of his still-visible external injuries.

"As good as that is, it also means anyone on rest status will be arriving either here or at the entrance shortly, and will attack in both places," Argento explained, drawing her blade.

"Why would they attack here?" one of the others asked in confusion.

"Incomplete and un-indoctrinated experimental subjects are a liability, so if the situation is dire enough, killing these liabilities becomes a 'necessary action'," the Wutain woman answered with something like a small sigh. "Let's keep moving and hope we can stay ahead of them." Everyone followed her closely.

They got to the last of the rooms she was looking for and they all stepped inside as she led the way and requested the individual experimental subject she wanted. That one was a sixteen-year-old woman who had a defiant look in her brown eyes as she obediently joined them and followed them into the hall. Again, they explained what was going on, asking her if she was willing to help them, to leave with them.

Quietly, she said, "I lived in the Slums until about a week ago, when those guys grabbed me. If you're really serious about getting out of here, my choice is to go with you, but only if _she_ is really trustworthy." At the word 'she', the sixteen-year-old, brown haired woman pointed her chin at Argento.

"Oh, you're one of those ones," Genesis sighed, and she looked at him in mild concern, actively seeing the severity of his injuries and the damaged wing on his right shoulder blade. "Argento isn't an enemy right now." He felt a tug and warning sense from Minerva, so turned his head to look behind them down the hall as he added, "And we don't have any more time to discuss this now."

After a momentary silence, Argento asked, "How did you know before me?"

"Later," he said, then looked back at the newest addition to their party. "Have you got any Materia on you?"

"It's not very powerful yet," she said, holding it out for him, and he took it.

Then, Genesis' brow rose as he asked, "They gave you Destruct Materia?"

"I like blowing things up and tearing them down. I'd gladly work as a demolitions expert if people from the Slums were ever given jobs like that," she said. "And I like flashy and technological things, and even just DeBarrier is pretty flashy."

With a wry grin at her, he turned to face Argento as she lifted her blade and faced the direction the steps were coming from, a veritable stampede they all could now hear. With very little thought, he cast Haste on the Wutain from the Time Materia he had, and braced himself to give her magical support. He knew the others were concerned about him being the one to 'fight', but there was no more time to say anything as the Deepground soldiers reached them and Argento jumped forward on Haste mode to attack them rapidly.

The first thing Genesis did was tap into Destruct's arrays to modify them deliberately to strike all of the opponents at once, creating a series of glowing arrays around his wrist as the magic shot from his hand and washed over the enemies. Many had indeed had barriers which came down as the DeBarrier spell washed over them, and Argento's attacks hit them with greater force. As he watched her move for a moment, he almost thought he was watching a snake given her way of pausing, almost curling in to herself, then lashing out with a rapid, deadly strike.

As one of them activated a hyper-mode and tried to come up beside the woman, he modified the Lightning arrays to cause paralysis, then cast Ice by modifying the arrays to solidify around the attacker's feet. With that one frozen in place, he used Stop from the Time Materia on another who was in the process of transforming into a monster. Frozen in a half-form, that one was extremely weak and Argento took it out before Stop broke, knowing the armored, behemoth-like creatures were tougher when transformed. She took a few more out before turning to the hyper-mode one still stuck in the ice, then went back to her usual fighting.

Just when it looked like she was finishing up with Genesis' magical help, a second wave came at them from a crossing hall further down—only for a section of the ceiling to fall with a blond haired teen in the black Turks' uniform on top of it. The panel crashed onto the leader of the rush, and before anyone could blink, the teen's sword was slicing through everyone in its reach as he swung around in a whirlwind. Another Turk, that one with fire-hydrant red hair and an EMR, dropped down from the hole in time to strike someone slipping past the blond, downing that one easily. He settled for picking off the ones who tried to slip past the blond, staying well outside the younger Turk's blade range.

By the time the battle was over, the blond was panting and slumped against the nearest wall for a minute before looking up at the others. Seeing six of them—and Genesis' condition—caused his eyes widen before he quickly cast Cure 3 and Regen on the whole group of them. Genesis' condition improved, but he was still showing quite a bit of damage, causing both of them to give wryly amused looks to the other.

"Nice try, Eden. What happened to your shoulder?" the red haired SOLDIER asked.

"Some of the doctors here carry bombs on them," the blond shrugged. "I just wish I could do more to heal you, Genesis. Speaking of, give him his things, Reno."

"Right...Since when do you give orders, kid?" Reno asked dryly.

"This isn't the time to discuss that," the blond replied, then gave a sharp whistle.

From the hole he and Reno had come through, three more people dropped down, obviously other experimental subjects, two men and a woman. They cautiously stepped past Argento to join the others like them, and Reno heaved a sigh before reaching under his jacket at the back to reveal Genesis' sword, bracer, and usual uniform. Those, he handed to the man, who blinked at them slowly—twice—then looked up with a small smile.

"I appreciate the thought, but it's not like I can put much on with my wing out. Thanks for my gear, though—that will really be useful," the red haired man told the younger man.

"Thank Eden, yo. He's the one who thought of bringin; those to ya," Reno answered, flicking a thumb at the blond.

Genesis offered the independent Materia back to their original holders, but they shook their heads, so he kept them. A moment later, while Eden and Argento talked quietly about where they had passed through, he tied his bracer on, then pulled his pants and boots on, and finally, strapped his sword belt on. His hand rested on Rapier, thankful it was at his side again, then he put the new Materia he'd gained in his pocket. His shirt and jacket he tied around his waist by their sleeves.

"How did you—there's no vent up there, so how did you get there, let alone come down on us from it?" Argento asked the two Turks in confusion while Genesis was still in the process of dressing.

"There was a—not really a vent," Eden told her. "From the first room inside the back entrance was a pipe of a sort which followed the halls and diverted into certain rooms, meant to transfer an airborne drug which makes people more susceptible to suggestion and programming. It fills the air on this level so their test subjects are more pliable and easier to train not to go against them. We shut it down and used it to go from room to room, killing the ones who couldn't be saved and saving the ones who could be."

Several of the others whistled in amazement as the woman asked, "And the hole? Neither a sword nor a rod could have done that."

"That just took modifying Earth Materia arrays," Eden shrugged.

There was a shout and a crash from the crossing hall down the hall and outside their view in the opposite direction the rush had come from, then something shot around the corner and slammed into Eden, causing him to collide with the wall. No one had any warning, so it was only Genesis' quick action of drawing his sword and activating his most powerful spellblade effect, Fire Blade, which saved them. The thing collided with his sword and shoved him back several feet as it howled in pain—and severed into two burning halves which hit the ground a few feet behind him. Genesis was breathing hard and dizzy from the effort of holding off the beast, but Eden hadn't gotten up yet.

A snarl drew their gazes to another beast like the first, something more wolf-like than the usual Deepground creation and in a strange, blue and silver hue. As it was about to jump at them, the thing's head jolted forward, then fell against its chest, hanging limply as the creature slowly collapsed. Behind it stood four more Turks, all of whom looked terse and worried. Both women held a gun of two different styles and one of the men held two revolvers, while the last young man held a dented and bloody nunchaku.

"Eden!" the brown haired woman gasped and ran to the blond teen, checking him to see how he was doing.

"Tseng, some kinda monster came 'round the corner and slammed into Eden, so I think he's down for the count now, yo. We've got everyone we can, and we've been makin' an effort to destroy their research 'n' tools. We're gonna have ta report back, even if we're not completely finished, but Freyra, Quis, Ruluf, and Emma have joined us, yo," Reno said, one hand covering the earpiece of his headset. After a silence, he said, "Right."

At that moment, Freyra gave a glare clearly directed at the headset she also wore, then huffed and said, "Tseng, got it, we'll finish up."

She pushed herself to her feet as Quis said, "At least we pretty much know this area is clear now, so it shouldn't take long."

She gave a sharp nod and the two of them passed by the whole group and kept on down the hall. "The rest of you should get out of the building quickly so we can total it," the lady hunter told them as she went.

"You should be quick, too, because smoke is starting to hang in the air," Emma called after the pair. Both gave a wave to acknowledge the words as they disappeared into the next room.

"What happened?" Shelke asked as her gaze stayed fixed on the monster the others had shot—it was the first thing she'd said in awhile.

"We were looking for others to rescue," Ruluf said, motioning down the hall, where another girl and several Deepground members joined them. The girl looked about thirteen, the rest eighteen to twenty-five. "This is the only one we found in here, the rest came from the housing area. In that last room, they were shapeshifters and clearly not sane, so those two were the last ones left. They managed to tear through the wall as they were the only actual successful ones, and both bolted in this direction. The first I guess Genesis took care of, and we shot the second because it wasn't as fast as the first so we could catch up to it."

"We'd better get going," Emma put in. "Since there are injured here, we'll have to figure out how to transport them all."

"I think Genesis and that Eden one are the only ones who can't walk," the brown haired, sixteen-year-old woman said. "We can, just not very fast."

"Not good enough if what Freyra said is true," Ruluf said, trading looks with Reno. After a pause, Reno put his EMR away and moved over to carry Eden in both arms, so Ruluf moved over to where Genesis stood, trembling and trying to stay on his feet. He faced the other Deepground soldiers and told them, "Pick the others up and carry them out at least as far as the yard outside." They nodded, so he faced the red haired man. "Put Rapier away and wrap your arm around my shoulders so I can take some of your weight," the black haired Turk ordered the SOLDIER Commander.

With a faint, exhausted grin, Genesis sheathed his sword and let Ruluf slip under his arm on his right to take the weight of the wing as well. Once the Turk had his arm around the middle of the red haired man's back, neither of them commented on just how much of Genesis' weight the Turk was taking. Shelke quickly slipped up beside Genesis' other side to put an arm around his waist, and he rested his left hand on her shoulder to let her take a bit of his weight, too. Other than Shelke and Argento, the others were having trouble moving around on their own, so the Deepground soldiers carried or supported them.

Finally, they were moving, Emma and Argento at the head of the group just in case, and the others following quietly, keeping the two worst-injured ones in the middle by silent agreement. They had gotten outside by the time Freyra and Quis rejoined them, the young man staying at the back as the woman joined the other two at the front and they got the gates open. As they got outside the lab walls, the whole building exploded, creating another town-rocking explosion and more black smoke being expelled into the air while they all stumbled and had to re-balance themselves.

Keeping that basic formation, they made their way all the way back to the main battle zone on the main street and the commons, and found that it had expanded to include the doctors' area, too. Partway down the street, Cait Sith hopped down from a nearby rooftop, followed by a worried Tseng who saw Emma's injuries and sent her to guard the back while he took over at the front.

 _(Tseng's perspective)_

The first thing they came to at the back of the battle zone was Cissnei standing guard over a barely-conscious Vant, and Judet and Illis had disappeared. With a small frown, Tseng asked into his headset, "Judet, Illis, where are you? Report."

"Tseng, we decided to join the battle in the doctors' area when some explosions sounded from there," Illis answered, and Judet gave agreement to the words a moment later. "Some of our people are fighting in here, so we thought it would be reasonable to help."

The Wutain man paused for a moment to assess the words, then said, "Illis, Judet, very well, continue. Let me know right away if you need any extra assistance."

He then faced the ones who had come from the labs and said, "Since Vant is pretty much out of commission now as well, leave Genesis, Eden, the experiments, and the Deepground soldiers with him. Quis can help Cissnei guard them, but the rest of us are going to join the battle actively unless Judet and Illis ask for help."

The others nodded and began moving to their positions, with Shelke leaning against Genesis' side and Eden laying on the ground with his head on the older man's thigh. The other experiments sat against walls nearby. Once the able fighters outside the guards had joined Tseng—Reno, Ruluf, Emma, and Freyra—to his surprise, Argento and the other Deepground soldiers stepped up to join him and his team as well.

"We're fully able to fight, and our freedom is at stake as well," Argento told him, and the other Deepground soldiers nodded.

After a pause to consider the words, Tseng nodded and turned to march into the middle of the battlefield, the other combatants following.

As they were leaving, they heard Shelke say tearfully, "I want Shalua..."

Reno paused long enough to say, "Don't worry, you'll have her soon, yo!"

Into his headset, Tseng asked, "Alvis, Balto, where are you?"

"Tseng, I'm with Second Fair, who stupidly decided to crack open the wall of the scientist's area and let some of the scientists out," Balto answered. In the background, Tseng could hear an indignant 'hey!', but the Turk quickly went on, "There's a woman here we're guarding because she's a doctor who claims she didn't want to participate in these experiments, and she doesn't seem to have the same traits as the other ones who attacked us—I daresay she's still sane, at least."

"Balto, do you need a hand?" the Wutain asked as he and the others with him waded into the mess on the battlefield. He was thankful this particular area was actually quite wide and mainly open, since it also gave shooting room.

"Tseng, we're fine for the moment. Judet and Illis took most of the pressure off us when they came charging in from the other side," the katana-wielding Turk said.

"Understood. Alvis, what about you?" Tseng asked, taking down a man trying to sneak up on a tired Third.

A roar sounded frighteningly near someone's headset, a roar which became a snarl, then a whine, and finally, all the noise went back to regular battle noise. For Tseng, the roars and battle noise had been there the whole time, but that was the first one to sound nearly beside the other's headset. He had known one of the Turks was right in the middle of the mess, but he was sure this particular incident had been a very close call, and with the other Turks accounted for (other than Veld, who wasn't part of the link), it meant said close call had been Alvis'.

"Tseng, sorry for the delay. We've got an actual walkway through the trap rooms to the lift, and Veld is guarding the lift itself after some of the doctors tried to bomb it. A few of those weird hyper ones got past us to him, too, so he doesn't dare leave it, meaning we're down a strong fighter. I'm with the General and the Commander in the middle of the main street just outside the lift building, where they're holding off the behemoth shapeshifters. Every time we take one or two out, twice as many pop up, so we could use a hand," Alvis said, even as more snarling sounded.

"Alvis, understood. We'll see what we can do to reach you, but don't attack the group coming with us—one is the Tsviet called Argento, and the others are Deepground members we can rehabilitate. Argento has already been helping our people out, so count her, and them, as allies," Tseng answered, looking over to meet the woman's eyes.

She nodded, then shot forward to cut down a crowd around a First who had been mobbed when he'd drifted away from his group. Argento then returned to Tseng's side, so the First paused and looked at the Turks, Deepground soldiers, and Argento for a moment before nodding and turning back to his small team to help them. A few of the Deepground soldiers with them began firing into the attackers around the SOLDIERs, and the First called out that the Deepground members without helmets were their allies.

"Tseng, I'll let the rest nearby know, but I can't leave my post to find all the SOLDIERs to tell them. That's up to you," Alvis answered.

"Alvis, I intended on it. Tell them that, if they see Deepground members without helmets and attacking other Deepground members, they're allies," the Wutain Turk replied, then looked at Argento. "Since you're joining us, Argento, we're heading for where Sephiroth, Angeal, and one of my Turks are holding off the metamorphose experiments at the entrance to the lift."

"That I can help with," she answered, then moved over to the 'sidewalk' on the street and jabbed the tip of her sword into an indent in the ground. "Silver-crafting pathway activation," she intoned, and something below them made a ' _thunk_ ' sound.

Three feet of the street nearest the wall began rising. Argento was standing firmly on it, but the others weren't, so they quickly jumped onto it before it rose very high. When it stopped, they were so high above the battle that only snipers from the third-tier building roofs would be able to attack them. From there, it would be easy to slip or jump off the path to rejoin the battle.

"Tseng, I'll stay on this path and snipe," Freyra said immediately as soon as she saw what she had to work with. She then laid flat on the walkway and aimed her gun to do exactly that, rapidly taking out Deepground soldiers who were surrounding lesser numbers of SOLDIERs.

"Fine. Take care of yourself, then," he told her, and she nodded. "Emma, stay to guard her against snipers from the roofs and help out with the sniping as you can." When the blond woman nodded, he began leading the way down the path to the place where they could now see the monsters. The battles along the rooftops were also visible, and it was fairly amazing to see how many SOLDIERs had gotten up there to face the Deepground members head-on in close combat. By the looks of things, Weiss' advice to close with the Deepground members was truly the best advice they could have had.

The rest followed him along the raised path towards the monsters, and Argento said on the way, "They rushed the experiments, but they're better at doing them now than they were when Azul was created, so most were at least successful enough to be combat-capable. That's most of what you're facing now—people stolen off the streets in the last couple of weeks who were broken in the experiments. There are a lot of them, and some actually were fully successful. While previous methods were more likely to retain sanity after a fashion, most of the rushed ones haven't got much, if any. There was one who was at Azul's level, however, and it looks like she hasn't shown herself yet. At least, by what's there, she hasn't."

Over two dozen monsters were laying around in various stages of degeneration, and another six were attacking Sephiroth, Angeal, Alvis, and a few other Firsts. Pyreflies were floating around in an almost sickening parody of some sort of celebration, and much of the light across the battlefield was coming from them. The lengthy battle was wearing on the combatants, even Sephiroth and Angeal, as they were panting with the effort, but Alvis was proving useful as Pyramid could bind another monster every so many minutes, which was fewer to fight. When Reno saw that, he also used Pyramid, giving the men fighting below what was equivalent to a break by having only three of six to fight at the moment—Alvis had managed to bind two before they got taken out.

"Argento, would you recognize her if you saw her?" Tseng asked as he eyed the remaining monsters, then tapped Ruluf's shoulder, then the corner of the man's nearest eye. Ruluf got the picture and started aiming for the three free monsters' eyes. Sephiroth downed one of the monsters before Ruluf could shoot it, but he got the rest, and for good measure, also shot the eyes of the ones trapped by Pyramid.

"I would, but—there she is," Argento answered, pointing at a woman standing behind the six which were being slaughtered by the Firsts, Angeal, and Sephiroth. In the next moment, she transformed into a huge, heavily-plated, behemoth-like monster with an azure mane running from head to tail tip. "She's immune to Pyramid—attack magic is the only thing which will really work on a monster like that one. If Deepground had lasted much longer, she'd have taken Azul's place as a Tsviet."

One of the Firsts was about to attack her, but Angeal held him back and drew his Buster Sword, bracing himself as the monster charged at the group. He jumped and brought his Demi Blade down on the behemoth's head—and just like when he'd done it to Azul, there was a tremendous explosion which sent him flying back to hit the wall outside the lift building. The behemoth-like monster's metal plates exploded off it and fell to the ground as the monster swayed, but then it shapeshifted to a wolf-like form and jumped at Angeal. Sephiroth blocked her off with his blade, but her claws resisted being cut. To make matters worse, more shapeshifters were joining the battle.

Argento surprised the others by jumping off the walkway to land on the monster's back, sword in hand as she came down. The shapeshifter started to rear back, but that only increased the impact as the Tsviet's blade struck the base of one horn—and her skull shattered open, the horn shooting off to hit the wall near Angeal. Argento then turned to attack another of the new monsters joining the battle as the shapeshifter collapsed and died. Her actions prompted the other Deepground members to jump down and help her out in the battle, leaving Reno and Ruluf to target the metamorphose experiments and him to target the other attacking enemies.

When Tseng saw Angeal recovering and moving to rejoin the battle, he also saw the need for him to make sure no one attacked their allies, so jumped down to join the battle alongside Argento, though he didn't stay anywhere for long as he spread word about their new allies.

The battle was finally starting to wind down.


	60. 59-Cleanup

Cleanup

A small hand shook Shalua awake, making her blink tiredly at Cait Sith, check the time on her clock, then groan and close her eyes again. "Why are you waking me up at two in the morning, Cait Sith?" she asked when the cat shook her shoulder again.

"Genesis was taken, Lass, an' they found Shelke, too, but 'tis a battle under there," the robotic cat told her. "She was askin' for ye!"

The girl didn't react immediately as her tired mind needed time to process the data, but once it had, she shot straight up in bed in shocked horror. "Genesis! Shelke! Oh no!" All at once, she was a flurry of movement, wide awake as she threw on the nearest covering article of clothing and bolted from her room, having no idea just how much noise she was making.

Before she could get far, though, an arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her back as a familiar voice asked, "What's got you so freaked at this time of the night?"

"Let me go, Anthony! They took Genesis, and Shelke's asking for me!" she almost yelled, fighting to get free of him.

Suddenly, a hand connected with her cheek, making her freeze and turn her head to look—to see Elena standing there, gazing at her with just a _look_. "You won't help anyone rushing out half-dressed and with no weapons or anything. If it's true Deepground took your brother, my sister and Anthony's father are down there fighting, too. We have as much right to be there as you do. Now, I'm going to keep an eye on you while Anthony and I get dressed and grab our weapons, then you can change properly and we'll all go together to see what's going on."

As Elena grabbed Shalua's arm and pulled, Anthony let her go, so Elena dragged the red haired girl to the guest room she was using at the moment. She shoved the other girl into the corner, then began getting dressed in her Academy uniform, revealing her holster and gun as she did. Once she was done, she grabbed Shalua's arm and dragged her back down the hall to her own room, which Anthony, also dressed in his Academy uniform, stood outside of with Cait Sith beside him, carrying a shuriken and wearing a sword similar to the SOLDIER-issue one. After Elena had closed the door behind the two girls, the blond found Shalua's uniform and made her put it on.

Finally, they were ready, so they stepped out of the room again and Shalua picked Cait Sith up to carry him while the three made their way to the Shinra building.

By all rights, the building should have been safe, quiet, and dark. With the raid on Deepground, the back part of the lobby was lit up, and there were some people visible inside. However, they didn't even make it to the doors.

"Well, well, what have we got here? A free gift to add to today's count!" someone said from just behind and off to the side of them. The three turned to look—only for three more men to resolve out of the shadows to surround them with chuckles and smirks. The men around them were dressed in normal clothing, but their eyes were Mako-blue and they had swords or guns held in their grips.

The two combat-ready teens backed against Shalua, keeping the red haired girl between them as they examined the enemies, then Elena asked, "Anthony, do you think this is all of them?"

"Probably not," he answered.

"Hey, don't treat us like you're so much better!" one man yelled—but the one beside him suddenly stepped forward with a frown.

"You..." he began, sounding confused. He never finished whatever it was he was going to say, reverting to the old adage, "Impossible," to negate the thought as he drew his blade and attacked.

Anthony reacted the way he would have to a challenger in Deepground, slipping to the side to avoid such an obvious blow and drawing his own sword to spin and slice, his body still recalling the movements, even without Mako. A long silence followed as the man who had attacked him fell to the ground, dead, but the silence was ominous as nearly two dozen men joined the three remaining. Most of them carried guns or had the obvious glow of Materia at their wrists.

"What the—?" Elena asked, drawing her gun and shooting the men nearest her.

Several attacks were launched all at once, only for a SOLDIER Second and five Thirds to land around the three teens and block off the attacks. From behind the attackers, another Second and five more Thirds joined the battle. With Elena effectively sniping for all of them and Anthony guarding Shalua, who had crouched with Cait Sith wrapped tightly in her arms so they were out of the way and smaller targets, the battle progressed quickly. There were even a few times where Elena resorted to crushing one's windpipe with a fist or foot because they got inside her gun range. It took about ten minutes for all the Deepground members to be taken out, scattered across the front steps and sidewalk in front of the Shinra building, but the SOLDIERs and Academy students all took relatively little harm.

Finally, the two Seconds turned to face the three kids as the Thirds circled them curiously, and one of the Seconds said, "As much as I appreciate the skills the two of you have in battle, what are you all doing here in the middle of the night, and why do you have one of Reeve's Cait Sith units?"

"I have Cait Sith because my brother, Genesis Rhapsodos, asked Reeve if he could give him to me in case I was in trouble and needed help. Since Genesis had accidentally turned this Cait Sith into a hedonist, Reeve agreed," Shalua said with a glare as she stood up straight. "And we're here because Cait Sith woke us up to tell us Genesis was taken by Deepground and Elena's and Anthony's relatives were in there fighting to free him."

The first Second rubbed the back of his helmeted head as he asked the other Second, "Gee, now that's quite a security leak if a few Academy students found out about that, don't you think, Luxiere?"

Luxiere, on the other hand, asked dryly, "What, like you knowing every damned thing about the Company and the doings of just about everyone from the Turks to the President and the President's son, Kunzel?"

Chuckles sounded from the Thirds as the first Second, Kunzel, sighed. "I guess, but at least I'm a SOLDIER so I'll protect the Company's interests."

"I want to be a Turk. You think I won't?" Elena asked darkly.

"As long as you don't act like a tape recorder," Shalua threw in, and Elena stuck her tongue out at the red haired girl.

"And I want to join SOLDIER, so why would I tell anyone else?" Anthony asked. "We knew about it from Genesis, since he had to tell his sister what might happen to him just in case. It happened, so we'd like to see them. Also, you're technically calling Cait Sith the leak, and I doubt you want to call the head of your Urban Development Department a snitch over one of his robots letting family know something was wrong."

The two Seconds traded looks, then Luxiere sighed and said, "Well, we need to get back inside, anyway, and this probably took care of the last of Deepground, so we may as well let them in."

"They said something about us being added to their count for today,"Shalua said suddenly. "What about the rest of the people in that 'count'?"

For a moment, the two Seconds traded looks, then Kunzel said, "We'll send a few Thirds to search the area for any captives." Luxiere nodded, and both indicated two of the Thirds from their units to search the area, each pair heading in different directions. They then led the way back inside the Shinra building lobby, the remaining Thirds circling the three fourteen-year-olds until they were back inside. Pyreflies had begun floating around the bodies by then.

Director Lazard was at the top of the stairs leading down to the main floor, and he asked, "What happened, Seconds?"

"Some stray Deepground guys went after these three," Luxiere said as he motioned at the teens. "They're Academy students who have family down in Reactor 0, and apparently, Cait Sith saw fit to wake them to tell them about the attack. We're guessing the Deepground guys out there are the raiders grabbing people from the Slums, more of the same ones the Turks went after a couple days ago."

After a pause to consider the words, the blond man nodded. "Fine, they can stay, but keep them out of the way. Doctors will need to be able to get in here to collect the injured being brought up for care—which should begin soon."

"Understood," both Seconds said, then Kunzel went on, "We also sent two from each of our units to find the other people the ones outside had kidnapped—probably from the Slums—earlier tonight."

"I appreciate the thought to track them down, as some may also need care and would qualify as victims of Deepground for our purposes," Lazard said with a small smile, turning to head back towards the hidden lift which wasn't so hidden anymore. The rest followed him, and he motioned the three teens to one of the glass model cases so they would be out of the way.

Kunzel stopped near them, so Elena asked, "Do you have any word on the battle down there?"

"Unfortunately, no," he answered, giving her a small smile. "But based on the group which went in and the backup they had, I'm sure most will be coming back alive and able to make a full recovery. I'm not foolish enough to say there won't be casualties, however, because on a battlefield, both sides will have them."

"I think there'll be more than you're assuming," Anthony commented, gaze blank as he stared across the room. "If what Genesis said is true, Deepground are a bunch of monsters, both literally and figuratively. Their enhancements place them at a higher level than SOLDIER's do, and it's only the fact that you aren't insane which gives you the upper hand."

The SOLDIER Second actually looked taken aback by the statement, but there was no time for him to reply as doctors and nurses from the hospital floors began filing into the room with emergency bags and stretchers. It didn't take long after that for the doors to open and SOLDIERs to begin stepping out, healthy ones with minor injuries carrying badly-injured friends and fellow SOLDIERs. In the first groups of twenty, all of them were coming up in sets of one healthy and one injured, the latter immediately being put on stretchers and taken upstairs. The reasonably healthy ones actually bolted back to the lift to go back down, and a different group came up the next time, then the process repeated several times.

Finally, when the lift opened several times down the line, it was to reveal a few Seconds supporting injured comrades, Angeal carrying Genesis, Sephiroth carrying a small, red haired girl, another First carrying a semi-conscious Judet, and Tseng carrying Eden. Judet, Eden, and Genesis were obviously injured while Shelke was as limp as a rag doll. Shalua was so stunned by the sight of her siblings that she needed a push to her shoulder from Anthony to unlock her body and run to them. It was hard to decide whether she should be more worried about Shelke or Genesis, though, and it was only Sephiroth and Angeal seeing her coming that allowed her to hug them both.

"Why do you have a wing, Genesis?" Shalua asked tearfully, glad the doctors had needed time to come back and get more people. "It's so good to have you back, Shelke!"

"Shalua..." the girl murmured as she lifted an arm tiredly to hug her sister back.

A hand on the fourteen-year-old's head made her look up to see Genesis give her a small smile as he said, "The wing isn't something they did, just something they used to torture me." He released a deep breath and added, "Take care of Shelke for now. I need rest and care this time—Materia can only heal wounds so many times before the body just can't take any more healing."

"How did you get in here? Why are you here?" Sephiroth asked curiously.

"Cait Sith woke me to tell me Genesis had been taken and Shelke wanted me," Shalua answered, then motioned with her head at Elena and Anthony.

"Excuse me, but we need the injured parties," a woman said from behind Shalua, making her step back to see Tseng laying Eden on one stretcher and the First laying Judet on another. Once she was out of the way, Angeal also lowered Genesis to one of them, and Sephiroth lowered Shelke to another.

"I'm going back down, so fill them in," Sephiroth said to Angeal as he headed back to the lift, the Firsts and Seconds following him quickly, where Tseng was holding it for them.

Angeal told the doctors lifting Shelke's stretcher, "Let Shalua go up with you and stay with Shelke and Genesis, who should be put in the same room. They're all siblings, anyway, and even if Genesis needs some serious care, Shelke mainly just needs rest, so it should be fine to let Shalua sit with her."

"We'll decide that once we've had a chance to check them out, but Shalua is free to sit in the waiting room until we've moved either or both to a room," the doctor at the front of the stretcher said, then they left, the fourteen-year-old trailing after them.

Angeal then faced Lazard and called, "Director, we're going to bring up some of the test subjects and members of Deepground, so you should warn people not to attack them. Most don't seem to need medical care, but they've all been subjected to experiments, so they probably need _some_ kind of care. I just don't think Argento will accept any."

"Who?" Lazard asked blankly.

"She's the last of the Tsviets in charge of Deepground," Angeal explained, and the man's eyes widened. "She actually helped free people who were still sane, and helped us fight some of the toughest of Deepground's replacement experiments. She's due to head up towards the end of the Deepground rehabilitees, then we'll start on the ones who are exhausted or minorly injured."

At that moment, Lazard's PHS rang, so he checked the number, then asked, "What do you need my help with?" He then frowned some as he listened to the answer, then said, "I'll ask around and make sure your people are informed if that's likely to be an issue, then." He hung up and looked at Angeal to ask, "Smoke inhalation? Why are some of them suffering from _toxic_ smoke inhalation?"

"Er—the Turks blew up several somethings which made the whole under-town rock, so it probably has to do with that," Angeal commented, rubbing the back of his head. "You might want to check with Tseng, though. We were a little too busy down there to pay much attention to anything but the battle and notes relating directly to us. But, if what I think is true, virtually all of us have it."

Nodding, the blond quickly found Tseng's number and let it auto-dial. The lift opened and eighteen people stepped off, including a thirteen-year-old girl, a sixteen-year-old girl, and several young women and men, eleven in the Deepground uniform without the helmet. He quickly beckoned the Shinra doctors to the group and motioned Angeal to explain to them as he said, "Angeal has said you may know why people are suffering from toxic smoke inhalation." He vaguely heard the Commander explaining that some of the Deepground soldiers could be rehabilitated, which were the ones there right then.

He then got a tired, exasperated expression on his face as he listened to Tseng's answer and said, "Yes, well, you're going to have to bump the likely injured victims of it up the line, because it's actually deadly if it can't be treated soon enough in someone with injuries, and left too long in someone without injuries, it can still turn deadly." His eyes widened and he lowered the PHS to say to the nearby doctors who were about to lead the 'test subjects' away, "Those ones all have smoke inhalation in need of treatment—you should count them as 'injured' status because of the experiments done on them." The doctors and 'test subjects' all stared as he went back to the phone to say, "Send me a text with everyone who has the worst case, Tseng. Thanks."

Finally, he hung up and the doctors quickly led their new patients upstairs, leaving Angeal to say, "I guess I was right about all of us having it."

"So it would seem—the black smoke spewing from two of the places they blew up was likely the main source. You're not in serious danger, though, because your injuries are minor at best," Lazard answered with a deep sigh. "All the test subjects—and Deepground members—Genesis, and several of the Turks count as being on the dangerous end, besides the SOLDIERs who were brought up first. The fact that Genesis and Eden were brought up when they were given their condition was their saving grace."

"I see," Angeal said.

Elena and Anthony both asked in alarm from beside the two, "Which Turks?"

Lazard blinked at them, then checked his PHS, where he could see the text from Tseng arriving. Opening it, he said, "Judet and Eden, who are already being treated, and Reno, Cissnei, Freyra, Alvis, Ruluf, and Emma."

"Oh, no!" Elena gasped, eyes wide as she hugged herself and Anthony rested a hand on her shoulder. "Emma...!"

"She'll be fine now that they know they need to come up here for care," Lazard told the younger girl, who just gave a small nod.

Soon after, the lift doors opened again, revealing a black haired Second, a woman in a silvery-white, SOLDIER-like uniform who was probably Argento, a whole host of Turks, and two women in doctor's coats. Most of the Turks appeared mainly unharmed, though one—Veld—was seriously injured with what looked like burns and several had obvious minor injuries. None of them seem to be upset or disturbed by their injuries and were showing greater concern for Veld in his severely injured state while two of the least injured Turks supported him. As they stepped off, Angeal stepped onto the lift to go back down.

Moments after they stepped out, Elena cried, "Emma!" and crashed into the older blond to hug her. Emma stared down at her sister's head in confused bemusement for a moment as she gave a slight wince, then lifted her arms to hug the younger girl.

"What are you doing here, Elena?" the Turk asked as doctors began approaching. "I rather thought you hated me for being chosen for the Turks before you."

"Cait Sith woke Shalua about the raid, so we came with her," the younger blond said, shoulders trembling a bit. "I thought I hated you, too, until the Commander asked me why I should give up on my dreams just because of—a setback—when all that would do was hurt me, not anyone else. And he gave me a really good reason why they wouldn't have chosen me." Elena then gave her head a shake and pushed back from Emma to glare at her and say, "You were being careless if you had to be sent back so soon!" The other Turks gave the blond sisters amused looks.

Blinking in surprise, the older blond's gaze became dry as she said, "Carelessness never came into the equation. First, I was on a battlefield, not on a mission, Elena—in that circumstance, accidents happen—and second, the Turks aren't needed down there now besides Tseng. And I have time to spare to get it fixed. I'll be fine before you know it."

"Tseng would only have sent you if you actually were in danger."

"I got swatted by a behemoth's tail, so I potentially have damage to my ribs or lungs, which would exacerbate the poison. Since the lift carries so many people, Tseng felt it was easier to just send us all and he'll catch up to us soon. He's only taking a valid precaution, not truly concerned for my health—he knows I'll be fine, too."

"Can we get you upstairs and tended so we can make sure you _actually will_ be fine?" a doctor asked in mild amusement from beside the pair. The others were already walking away with other doctors.

"Of course," Emma said, detaching Elena's arms from her. "Now, come upstairs and keep me company—you've been avoiding me for months now."

"...Okay, fine, but I'm not going to be the one to take care of you!" the younger blond agreed, still glaring, and Emma raised an amused brow. After a moment, Elena turned to look at Anthony to ask, "Will you be okay waiting on your own?"

"I'll be fine," Anthony answered. "My—dad wasn't in that list, after all, or in the first ones up, so he must be fine...maybe stuck somewhere so he couldn't come back right away." Privately, he wondered if a corpse that didn't breathe would actually be in _any_ danger from the poison, but he was still worried for the man, and wondered why. It was a new sensation for him.

"Yeah, I guess so," she agreed, then quickly followed Emma and the doctor.

As it turned out, the next set up included Vant, who leaned on Sephiroth and was clearly exhausted but seemed to have no actual injuries, and several other SOLDIERs who had fairly minor injuries. Anthony ran to Vant and Sephiroth to hug them both, but quickly took over to let Vant lean on his shoulder so the silver haired SOLDIER would be able to head back down.

The other SOLDIERs went with the doctors, but Sephiroth waved them away from him, Vant, and Anthony. "Vant isn't injured, just exhausted—he doesn't even have the poisoning. We just wanted him out of the way since he's otherwise a dead weight, but he's in no need of care," the General told them, so the last pair of doctors went back to wait at the lift to take the next ones with injuries for care.

"I'm guessing you're here because of Cait Sith and Shalua," Vant said softly to his younger son, voice clearly exhausted.

"Yeah. We should move over to the wall so you can sit and rest for now, though," Anthony answered. His gaze went to his older brother as he asked, "What about you?"

Shaking his head, Sephiroth answered, "I can't stay. We're still taking a tally of the deaths and getting the injured out of there. As such, I'm needed to command everyone down there, even with Angeal and Tseng's help." He reached over to rest his hand on the younger boy's head. "Take care of our dad," the young man almost whispered, making Vant smile faintly as Anthony gave him a vaguely amused look.

"Of course I will. Go do what you need to do, then, Big Brother," Anthony returned at the same low volume as the silver haired man had used.

Nodding, Sephiroth went back to the lift, waiting for it to return with the next load of injured people. Some more Seconds and Thirds came up that time, and Sephiroth went back down with the lift, even as Anthony supported Vant over to the wall next to the model case the three teens had waited by before. The two sat, Anthony leaning his arm against the older man's, then subconsciously rubbing his arm where a random blow had hit him during the fight on the street.

"Is something wrong?" his father asked quietly.

After a moment of silence, the younger, black haired boy said, "When we were on our way here, we were attacked by the Deepground kidnappers. The Seconds and Thirds who had stayed here to keep the exit secure came to help us fight them off, and a few of them went to look for the other ones who had been kidnapped tonight."

"You're okay?" the man asked, gently reaching over to touch the arm the boy had been rubbing.

"I'm fine, it's just a bruise," Anthony answered wryly. As several people came in from outside, all showing assortments of injuries, he said, "I'm more worried about the ones who just came in—they were injured by Deepground as their captives."

Vant sighed and said wryly, "It's good to know you've learned to care, even a bit, about others. Thank you."

"...You can't actually be affected by an airborne poison, can you?" the fourteen-year-old suddenly asked in a whisper, a little amused and curious.

"No, I can't. At the moment, I'm quite glad of that fact," the man replied in an equally amused tone. They settled to wait for the after-raid cleanup to end.


	61. 60-Recovery

**A/N:** Because I removed all the notes about the previous polls I did, I'm just going to give a small update for new readers:

The most important of the three polls was on which path for part 2 of Catalyst Array the readers wanted me to focus on first. The result of that was for more Amestrians to end up on Gaia in the name of helping to save it, so that's the path which will be written and posted first. The other variant, where Ed remains the only one and can't save Gaia alone which causes many people of Gaia end up on Spira (FFX/X-2 world, far into the future), will also be written and posted, but will take longer.

The second poll was on Amestrian characters readers would like to see in Gaia, and the top 4 picks of those were Mustang, Hawkeye, Izumi, and Winry. Al would end up on Gaia by default, since he's the reason they even go. The group is larger than these 5, though.

Finally, the last poll was on how much data on Ed's fusion Materia readers wanted me to give in part 2, when they actually get created, and the result came out to 'some important data in the story' and 'an insert with the complete data' so everyone can choose to read it or not (I'm not expecting a huge number to because this is going to be something like a scientific paper on the topic, which qualifies as dry reading for most).

For new readers with questions, concerns, or 'votes' on any of these, send me a PM and I'll be happy to answer you! :)

Also, the new list of Turks hasn't changed much, so you can look at it or not. I only included it for people who like to track nitty-gritty details (since I had to do up a version of it to keep my own timeline and people (Turk) progression straight). The biggest difference is in the ranks of the Turks because all their ranks got changed to Ed's new system after the raid on Deepground.

 **Now, on with the story!**

Recovery

Slowly, Eden came to, feeling something fixed over his mouth and nose which was apparently helping him breathe. When he opened his eyes, he was looking tiredly at a white ceiling, and his chest actually hurt quite a bit. In exhaustion, he closed his eyes again for a minute, then slowly opened them once more, feeling the crisp sheets around him and something wrapped around various parts of his body. Beside him was an annoying beep he wanted to hit, but just didn't have the energy to move in order to stop it.

"So you've finally woken," a familiar voice commented dryly from off to one side of the object he lay on.

Slowly, he turned his head to the side, seeing a hospital room, a hospital bed, and in the visitor's chair beside the bed, Rufus Shinra. The young man was sitting there with his arms crossed and an annoyed scowl on his face, but actually seemed more worried than angry. Eden gave a tiny smile—it was all he had the strength for.

"You lied," Rufus stated suddenly, and Eden's gaze became confused. As such, the older blond said, "You said you'd come back alive and well. You're alive, but not well."

Eden's lips quirked in mild amusement, knowing he hadn't actually made such a promise, just said 'that's the plan', but he realized this was his charge's way of worrying about hm. It was actually heartwarming to know Rufus cared enough to worry, despite his opinion of Eden being that he was an annoying brat who was attached to him at the hip no matter what he wanted to do or where he wanted to go.

"So he finally came to," another familiar voice commented as a second chair landed quietly beside the first. Eden's gaze went to Elfé as she sat down and added to him directly, "You had us worried. Your lungs had actually depressed under the weight of whatever hit you, so you'll be here for awhile attached to a breathing machine."

After a silence, Eden recalled something colliding with him, so gave a small nod of understanding. His eyes then closed again for a minute. When he opened them, the woman held up a small stack of pictures. The top one showed Genesis (still with a wing attached to his shoulder) and a small, red haired girl he vaguely remembered using alchemy on while in Deepground sitting in what was probably the injured man's hospital bed. Shalua sat in a chair on the side nearest the younger girl and Kariya gave the picture-taker a wave from the far side. The girl had a pink, dragon-like plushie in her lap, and both she and Genesis had breathing masks on.

Elfé began flipping through the pictures, letting him take a look at each one before flipping to the next one.

The second picture showed Emma and Freyra both sitting in a room wearing breathing masks as Elena sat next to the blond Turk, holding her hand. The third had Zack sitting in a bed and looking annoyed, Angeal in another bed next to him, and two Seconds looking at Zack in clear amusement, the two in the beds each wearing a breathing mask. The fourth showed Reno and Ruluf sitting in beds with masks on, Rude and Cissnei with them and looking amused by one of Reno's antics, but Cissnei had a breathing mask on as well, a stand beside her connected to it. Each picture showed other Turks, SOLDIERs, and the experiments they'd rescued, letting him see who was alive and well and who was recovering. Nearly all of them had masks on. The only three people he knew and didn't see were Vant, Tseng, and Veld.

As she was putting the pictures away, the door suddenly opened as Tseng began, "Rufus, has he wo—?"

Eden turned his head slowly towards the door, seeing a stunned Tseng and Veld standing in the doorway, staring at Elfé, who also stared back at them in surprise. At least, he was pretty sure it was Veld, as the man who stood there was in the Turks' uniform and had his height and build. Most of his hair had been burnt off, over half his face was covered in burn scars, and he was now wearing an eye patch over his left eye.

...How long had he been out for, exactly?

Rufus said, "Leave her be, Tseng. She's here as a concerned friend visiting said friend."

Tseng seemed undecided, but Veld suddenly took a step forward and asked, "Felicia?" His voice was rougher than Eden was familiar with, but it was also obviously Veld's voice, and he was clearly shocked as he eyed Elfé. That was the most emotion Eden had ever seen him show.

She frowned in puzzlement, slowly shaking her head. "I don't know. I can't remember anything before about three and a half years ago. Who is Felicia to you?"

For a long moment, the man was quiet, then he ushered Tseng into the room and shut the door before facing her again. "Felicia is my daughter. I was told you and my wife had both died in the fire-bombing of Kalm, but—I'm sure you're her, because I would know you anywhere, Felicia."

All of them stared at him in shock, but Elfé looked away after shaking her head. "I can't remember...It's like...something is almost familiar, but then it's gone."

"Then I'll help you recover your memory. Why does Eden mean so much to you?" Veld asked curiously, moving over to her to gently rest a hand on her shoulder. The hand was the one on the left, and it was as scarred as his face, some of it still wrapped in bandages.

Looking up, she gazed around at the others in the room in uncertainty, then turned to face Rufus last, gaze questioning. When he gave a small nod, she looked back at Veld and said, "He and Genesis are going out of their way to save my life, and have helped my people and I before. Eden is a surprisingly good person for a Shin-Ra employee and a Turk...though I'm starting to see how little I knew about the individual people working in Shin-Ra."

"...Your people?"

"...AVALANCHE."

Tseng suddenly sighed tiredly and said, "Now that whole connection makes sense. I thought it ran deeper than Rufus funding them behind his father's back."

"That it does," Veld agreed. "Now I'm glad I've resigned."

"Resigned?" both Rufus and Elfé asked together.

With a nod, the scarred man said, "In the last week, I've been fire-blasted by an unexpectedly strong bomb, given a report which was Hell to give, been called a failure and demoted, and found out my injuries won't recover enough to let me do my job. A missing eye and stiffened limbs aren't beneficial to a Turk, after all. Tseng is taking over for me." His gaze then moved to Eden as he said, "The new rank system you set up was accepted, by the way. Despite the fact that none of us should have been raiding Deepground, all the participants have either been promoted or received commendations for coming back alive. For the Turks, everyone who could be promoted a rank has been. Congratulations."

Eden just gave him a wryly amused look, then turned his gaze to Rufus as he gave the other blond a questioning look.

"Yes, you've been unconscious for a week, Eden," the eighteen-year-old answered. "It's been a rather dull week, actually. This is the most interesting thing which has happened since the raid on Deepground—and guess what? It happened just when you woke up! There's that joke hidden in here somewhere again."

Tseng and Elfé looked amused by the words, but Veld said, "Oh, things have been happening, just not right here. The world doesn't revolve around Eden, contrary to popular belief—he just gets swept up in it and willingly goes with the flow."

"I would say he instinctively challenges the flow, rather than that he goes along with it," Tseng replied dryly. "And he seems to have greater success than average at doing so, something which is oddly endearing, amusing, and exasperating at once."

"I suppose there's some truth to that as well," Rufus admitted. "Now, could you possibly find..."

Eden didn't hear the rest as his eyes drifted shut and he fell back into sleep.

CA

The next time he woke, he was somewhat more alert and his body wasn't quite so weighed down, so he turned his head to look around again—and in the chair at the head of the bed was Rude. The man gave him a small smile and rested his hand on the blond's head, not really saying anything but just letting him know he was there. With both of them back in Midgar and working, they'd had very little time together, and the one time they'd met had been while planning the Slum-hunting of Deepground's people, which hadn't really left them time to talk. Just being in Rude's company again was relaxing and he felt better just by that—which had the unexpected side effect of putting him right back to sleep.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed since then, but he knew that Rude was still there when he woke again because he could feel the familiar hand on his head.

Opening his eyes, he looked up at the darker man and said a small, "Hey." That time, his voice actually emerged, and Rude gave him a smile bigger than the last.

"You're recovering," the man said in a soft voice, sounding relieved.

"Finally," he agreed in mild amusement.

"I wish I'd been there."

"If you had, Tseng would have made you fight, anyway. In the main battle, I mean."

Saying so much had the unfortunate side effect of causing him shortness of breath and making it hard for him to breathe. The mask over his mouth and nose kept him from passing out from lack of air, but it didn't make the effect on his chest and body hurt any less. Rude kept his hand steady on his head through the pain, which helped to ground him and eased off the struggle for breath faster than it probably would have taken otherwise. How Rude did things like that, he didn't know, but he was grateful every time.

"Better now?" the man asked when he'd relaxed tiredly again.

With a small, wry grin, Eden said softly, "Can't talk that much."

Rude gave a small chuckle and nod. "It's okay. Get better soon."

"Thanks," the blond teen answered, letting his eyes slide closed again. After a minute, he opened them and asked, "How's Genesis?"

"Recovering," Rude answered.

Raising a brow, Eden said, "I meant mentally."

"He has Sephiroth and Shelke."

"...And how's Shelke doing?"

"Stronger. Staying with Shalua."

"Where's the Summon Materia...I had after the battle?"

At the question, Rude sighed and said, "Tseng has it."

"...Will he give it back?"

"You'll have to ask him."

"Did he say...why he took it?"

"Just that it couldn't be known."

Eden shut his eyes for a moment before saying, "Guess I have to...ask him after all."

"You thought anything else?" Rude asked in amusement, producing a small smile from the younger blond.

"I could hope."

They fell into silence for awhile before the sixteen-year-old fell back into sleep, comforted by the hand on his head.

CA

"This must be the first time a Turk has refused to obey my orders—besides Eden, anyway," Rufus was just short of snarling as Eden came to the next time.

"Doesn't matter. I'm staying," Rude replied calmly, hand still resting on his fellow Turk's head.

Eden blinked at the two, then said, "You can both stay. I don't mind." He still had the mask on, so decided to keep his statements as short as possible until he knew what he could handle.

Rude gave him a wryly amused smile as Rufus huffed and said, "At least you can talk this time. Reeve said he's coming by later to do some repairs on your leg, whatever that means." He then flopped down into one of the chairs and asked, "Why does an engineer need to look at your leg? You don't have a prosthetic."

The younger blond's brow rose as Rude chuckled. "Not very observant, are you?" Eden asked in quiet amusement, then looked at Rude and gave a small nod. The older Turk moved the sheets and covers away from his left leg, revealing the auto-mail limb, which he then flexed like a normal person would move their own leg. Rufus stared as the younger blond examined the damage to the limb. "Guess it _does_ need some repair."

After a pause, his charge rapped on it with his knuckles, then said, "Advanced cybernetics. No wonder I didn't notice." He then asked, "How did it get so badly damaged to begin with? The majority of the damage you took was to your upper body, not lower."

"It also hasn't gotten any repairs for about nine months," Eden answered, returning his leg to a rest position so Rude could cover it up again.

"Not even regular maintenance?" the President's son blinked.

"Regular maintenance is only needed every six months."

"How did you manage to miss your last round of maintenance, then?"

"...The one who did it for me—isn't _here_."

"...I see..."

At that point, Rude returned his hand to Ed's head and said, "Reeve will fix it."

"I know," Eden smiled wryly.

They were silent for a few minutes before Rufus turned to Rude and asked, "What is Eden to you that you're so determined to stay here, anyway?"

"A friend," Rude said right away, then paused for a moment. Some sense that he wasn't finished yet made Rufus stay silent, his brow furrowed in mild confusion. Finally, the older Turk went on, "Maybe...a younger brother...or a son."

"You've been a better one than my sorry excuse for one," Eden told the man in a soft, wry tone. "A father, I mean." Rude gave him a small smile again.

Rufus stared between the two in puzzled confusion, not sure how to take that new information about either of them. "Aren't both of you too old to have that kind of relationship?" he asked.

"Family isn't just your blood," Eden told the eighteen-year-old blond quietly.

"...It isn't?" the older blond asked, brow furrowed.

"Feelings are important, too. Family you make for yourself."

The door opened right then as Reeve's voice said in a plaintive tone, "—Not that serious. It's just maintenance."

Tseng's voice answered as he led the way into the room, "It's serious enough for you to feel you have to do it just now." The Wutain's gaze traveled the room, seeing Rufus and Rude, and noting that Eden was awake. "Let's hope you stay awake for awhile, Eden. Is Reeve really just doing maintenance?"

The younger blond raised a brow at the question and said quietly, "My leg still functions like normal, if that's what you mean."

"And it's better to do maintenance on it _before_ it starts malfunctioning than to wait until then," Reeve added, setting down a metal-reinforced briefcase on the end of the bed. Ed nodded, knowing Winry had said the same thing to him multiple times. "As such, since I had some time, I'm doing it now."

The man uncovered his auto-mail leg and began pulling off the casings like he already knew what to do with it, leaving the others staring at him with cross-eyed, bemused expressions as Eden gave an amused grin. "Thanks, Reeve," he told the man disassembling his prosthetic limb.

"Of course," the older man in the familiar, navy suit agreed, turning to his case to pop it open and begin working on the casing parts.

"...Should I bother asking?" Rufus sighed shortly after.

"You need to?" Eden asked with a raised brow. When cold, blue eyes met his with a glare, he snorted faintly and said, "You _really aren't_ very observant."

"Why do you say that?" his charge asked with a glare.

"Remember Cait Sith 1, the one staying with Shalua?" Eden asked with a raised brow—and Tseng sighed, closing his eyes and pressing the fingers of one hand to his forehead.

"The day Rufus insisted Genesis join you in town, you all went to Shalua's and Reeve checked in on you when he was notified of her current visitor list because he had some free time. Cait Sith acted as Reeve's eyes and hands to take your leg apart once already," the Wutain recited, sounding very tired. Rufus looked stunned for a moment before making the rest of the connections and his eyes widened. "You are the only Turk who manages to keep things from me, you know."

"I'd tell you if you asked," Eden replied in mild amusement.

"I think the problem lies in knowing what to ask you to find out the relevant information because you're so involved in pretty much everything that's happening," Tseng answered, looking up with a small smile.

"You wouldn't be the first to feel that way," the younger Turk answered in amusement. He paused, then said, "You could try asking the simplest question, though."

"What question would that be?" Tesng asked dryly.

"Easy: 'Eden, can I have an update on everything you've been doing since the last update you gave me?' That works."

Rude and Reeve looked amused, Rufus looked confused, and Tseng looked shocked for a minute, then started to chuckle, turning to face the wall and lean one hand on it as he spent a few minutes just trying to get his laughter under control. In the meantime, Reeve had turned his attention to the wiring and gears in the prosthetic limb, working quickly and efficiently to make sure they were all oiled, functional, and secured in place. That was the most important part of the maintenance, and the repairs to the casings could be done at any time as long as it was before he needed the leg again. In the few minutes it had taken Tseng to get back under control, he'd checked the entire knee joint already.

The Wutain Turk turned back to Eden with amusement in his eyes and asked, "How does that apply if you've never given me an update and some of the pertinent information comes from before you were even a Turk?"

Eden had to think about that for a moment before saying, "Then I'll give you as complete an update as I can, basically from the time I met Freyra."

Tseng considered the words for a minute, then nodded. "We'll get to that when I have more time in a few days, then. All of the Turks are fine, and you're the last one in need of recovery. Many of the SOLDIERs are still here, like Genesis, about half of the Firsts, about the same of the Seconds, and somewhat more of the Thirds. Well, with all the promotions, there are only ten Thirds left, so technically, no Thirds are here. The rest who have been released are nearly all out on missions, so the Infantry and the Turks are picking up city patrols and defense. Some of the population has been disappearing, but those were all peaceably and with letters to friends and family saying they're fine, just trying their fortunes elsewhere. By reports we've gotten, though, it would seem AVALANCHE is involved. Are they recruiting?"

"No," the teen answered, gaze amused. "They won't turn down an offer, but no." His gaze moved to Rufus, who glared at him before huffing.

Crossing his arms as Tseng's gaze went to him, the President's son said, "The people disappearing are somehow on Shinra's hit list, whether for death or capture. In the wake of Fuhito's desertion, they chose a more reactive path than a proactive one, trying to save people rather than destroy the Reactors, which will undoubtedly kill far more than it will save."

A flash of something passed over Tseng's eyes before he turned back to Eden and asked, "My friend?" Reeve, Rufus, and Rude all frowned in puzzlement at that.

"Go see for yourself," the blond Turk replied dryly.

The words caused a pause in the Wutain man before he relaxed and nodded. "I'll do that, then. Once more of the SOLDIERs are healed and able to take up their patrols again, I'll be sending people out to find and eliminate Fuhito. You should be healed by then, yourself, so I may send you."

"And leave Rufus unguarded?"

"Sephiroth has been doing quite well keeping up with him, and consulting with Lazard has earned agreement on the point of any free-roaming scientist anything like Hojo being too dangerous to leave alone. You'll be reassigned to Rufus once Fuhito is out of the way," Tseng explained, and Eden's brow rose again.

"Fine," he sighed. Rufus also didn't look very happy. "Why were so many people wearing breathing masks after the attack?" When Tseng's brow rose in question at the inquiry, he said, "Elfé—Felicia—had brought me pictures of almost all of them."

"I see. We'll set aside the question of how she managed that for later, but to answer you—apparently, all the targets for destruction the Turks had were releasing a poisonous gas into the air upon their destruction. Everyone needed treatment to get it out of their bodies before it killed them—even ones like Sephiroth, Angeal, and myself, though we weren't in nearly so much danger. You, Genesis, Veld, and Judet almost didn't make it. If we'd brought you up for the doctors any later—that would have been it."

"...Oh."

"Yes, oh. Get some more rest."

While Reeve kept working on his leg, Eden did exactly that, and was out like a light.


	62. List of Current Turks (V2)

**List of Current Turks in Catalyst Array (Version 2)  
**

For the most part, anyone who read the first list probably doesn't have to go through this unless they're really curious about what's changed. Feel free to skip it completely.

This is an updated list based on the next round of promotions in the year 0000 as of Eden waking on October 22nd, a week after the Deepground Raid. It still lists them by code name, primary weapon, age, Rank, general hiring date, hometown, and birth name.

My main reason for doing this list is just to update the Turks' new Ranks under the new system Eden worked out in chapter 44, so under the Rank part, I'm listing what their Rank would have been before the system switch, and the new Rank after it. That means they've been promoted first under the old system (17 Ranks), then there were corrections for the new system and their Rank in it (10 ranks). A few ages have also changed.

There won't be another list in part 1, but there will be one at the start of both versions of part 2 (for those who aren't familiar with the Turks from Before Crisis to reference), and the Amestrian path of part 2 may have a second one after I've got the final list of new Turks, but I may not include it, either—that will depend on whether any readers want that second list. I don't anticipate having a second list in the Spira version of part 2.

As stated last time, the most important part of this list is the first two (bold) items, as the capitalized primary weapons indicate their default 'name' in Before Crisis.

 _ **List Data Order:**_

 _ **Code Name, Primary Weapon**_ _, Age, Old/_ _ **New**_ _Rank, Hiring Date, Hometown, Birth Name_

 **Veld** **(retired)** **, gun/martial arts** , 45+, Omega/ **Legend** , pre-1980, Kalm, Verdot Pereld

 **Rude, martial arts** , 30+, All-Time/ **Grand Master** , 1994, unknown (maybe Costa del Sol), Blade Rusk

 **Balto, Katana** , 22, Crystal/ **Grand Master** , 1996 February, Gongaga, Tomas Balfour

 **Tseng** **(Director)** **, gun** , 19, Omega/ **Legend** , 1996 November, Wutai, Ren Kaoin

 **Kariya (Legend), bombs** , 40+, All-Time/ **Grand Master** , 1997 February, Junon, Sidney Dalton

 **Reno** **(Second in Command^)** **, EMR** , 18, Galaxy/ **Grand Master** , 1998 April, unknown (probably Midgar Slums), Noah Reid

 **Maur, Martial Arts (Male)** , 25, Grand Master/ **Platinum** , 1998 September, Costa del Sol, Urban Rehema

 **Judet, Martial Arts (Female)** , 24, Legend/ **Grand Master** , 1998 October, Icicle Inn, Harriet Judson

 **Cissnei, Shuriken** , 15, Grand Master/ **Platinum** , 1999 March 23, unknown/Midgar orphanage, Neirine Cissero

 **Illis, Knife** , 20, Expert/ **Leader** , 0000 January 22, Corel, Lisa Ilya

 **Emma, Gun** , 18, Black/ **Leader** , 0000 March 21, Midgar Slums, Maria Emerio

 **Ruluf, Two Guns** , 22, Platinum/ **Gold*** , 0000 June 10, Midgar Slums (Sector 6), Russel Thorluf

 **Freyra, Shotgun** , 21, Platinum/ **Gold*** , 0000 June 17, Mideel, Kara Freyne

 **Alvis, Rod** , 18, Ace/ **Expert** , 0000 July 4, Midgar Slums, Dennis Alvar

 **Quis, Nunchaku** , 18, Silver/ **Ace*** , 0000 August 9, Bone Village, Travis Quaten

 **Eden, variety/magic** , 16, Silver/ **Ace*** , 0000 September 10/back-dated to August 29, Amestris, Edward Elric

 **Vant, gun** , 50, Silver/ **Ace*** , 0000 September 11, unknown/Nibelheim (for lack of another place), Vincent Valentine

End List

^ Reno's position as Tseng's 2nd is never 'officially' confirmed, but this is assumed to be the case because his name is nearly always listed in Compilation data immediately after Tseng's when Rude was the one who joined first and technically has seniority over Reno. As such, I'm placing him in this position now that Veld has retired, but this doesn't officially get stated in the story until Part 2.

* These five (Ruluf, Freyra, Quis, Eden, and Vant) are one Rank lower than they technically should be because their Ranks were adjusted down one under Eden's new system (yes, that means Ed reduced his own Rank). Kariya and Rude didn't have this adjustment because of how even reducing their original system Ranks by one would have left them in the same Rank in the new system. Tseng didn't get the adjustment because he only gained 1 Rank as it was. Here's the short list of the new Ranks compared to the old ones:

 **New (Original):**

Trainee (trial period/observation and scouting)

Rookie (Trainee, Rookie)

Silver (Member)

Expert (Ace)

Ace (Leader)

Gold (Silver)

Master (Gold, Platinum)

Leader (Black, Expert)

Platinum (Master, Grand Master)

Grand Master (Legend, Galaxy, Crystal, All-Time)

Legend (Omega)

Is there anything else you want to see on this list? If so, please let me know so I can add it!


	63. 61-Updates (this is a chapter)

**A/N:** Sorry, this isn't a very active chapter, but it needs to be done before the story moves on. Bear with me!

Updates

About a week had passed since Reeve had visited to repair Eden's leg. Vant had stopped by with Anthony, Shalua, and Shelke (they were all in good health), Angeal and Zack (now in a black First uniform, as he'd been promoted along with nearly every Second and Third) had visited, and Rufus and Rude had nearly been living there. Even Sephiroth had stopped by once with Rufus, as had Elfé and Veld—or Verdot Pereld, as his non-Turk name was. The man looked the worse for wear, but was in reasonably good spirits, and with his presence, Elfé was regaining memories in a slow trickle. Genesis was still on bed rest as well, mainly due to the doctors wanting to make sure his mind was healthy, but most of the other SOLDIERs were no longer in the hospital.

At least Eden could now sit up and breathe without the mask—he'd been hit hard enough by the monster that most of his front rib cage on both sides had broken to the inside edge and been pushed downward towards the rear rib cage, literally compressing his lungs between them. For the doctors to try to lift the whole of both rib cages back into place, secure them, and pump the toxin he'd been breathing in out of his lungs—it was no wonder his recovery had taken so long, even with both magic (they couldn't use any more on him, though) and their advanced technology. If he'd still been in Amestris, he'd have still been unconscious (or comatose), assuming he'd survived this long, and he'd exacerbated his condition during the short time he'd woken as the battle had been winding down.

Since he'd woken, he'd also largely dealt with the people he'd killed in the raid, a smaller number than most of the others, but also a harder bunch to kill. All he could do was allocate it as mercy killing, as the majority really hadn't been sane anymore, not in the reclusive or vegetative form (though some had been so vegetative they'd practically drowning in their own drool) but the stark raving mad and homicidal form. There was nothing left to save, and they were far too dangerous to risk getting out into the civilian population. It didn't make it pleasant, and he sincerely wished he didn't have to do that again—in comparison, killing Fuhito or Hojo would be ten times easier, since the people he'd killed in Deepground hadn't even chosen to be that way. At least, most of them hadn't. It was possible a few had been willing since apparently Azul had been. In the meantime, he was glad of the break which meant he wouldn't have to kill anyone at all until he healed.

On that same token, the Zirconaide shards were generally in the cupboard under the end-table he had beside his hospital bed, so he was actually able to recover from the energy drain they put on him. And, probably more importantly, he could think freely while they weren't on him, could cry (he'd done that silently a few times when no one else had been there), could actually ponder things like how he could convince them not to kill a huge portion of the population. After all, they'd led him to believe they'd be killing a minimum of thirty percent of the population, and that they still expected to kill effectively ninety-eight or ninety-nine percent of it. They were gradually getting better, but not nearly enough for him to trust them if he restored them any time soon. How could he get them to ease up? No answers came to him immediately, and he still had work to do—like on figuring out how to adjust them to get them out of Elfé's arm.

That day, he was sitting there alone, drawing out the arrays from the shards he had of Zirconaide, focused on figuring out how to save his new friend. When he had asked for paper, a writing surface, and a pen, the doctors had readily given him those items and let him work on mental tasks, like what he was currently doing. Since it was the only thing he could do, and it was necessary work to save Elfé, anyway, it also kept him busy and focused so he didn't go stir crazy. Currently, he was drawing one of the fractured arrays from memory after having looked at it very carefully several times for several minutes each.

The door opened and he saw Tseng step inside, closing and locking the door behind him, so he set aside the drawing—it was complete and he'd just done his final check on it, so he would have been moving on to the next array shortly, regardless. "Where's the Materia shard I had in my hand when we were down there being guarded by Cissnei?" he asked the Wutain man.

Tseng tipped his head to the side and asked in reply, "Exactly what is it and where did it come from?"

Eden paused to search the older man's gaze, then gave a small sigh and said, "I woke up while the battle was still going on and realized Shelke and Genesis were right there. She had so much Mako in her body it was killing her—her body had become too reliant on it, and even a couple days without Mako infusions would have killed her. It was one of the other experimental subjects who told us that. I had already taken the Mako out of Weiss, so I decided to try it with her as well, only I had to run it through Genesis to make it work because of the proximity of the Reactor. What I know is that it worked, and a—I think it was a Summon Materia—had appeared in my hand, but it knocked me out, and Shelke was made just as weak as Weiss had been."

"You can run such a power through another person?" the man asked in surprise.

"It was Genesis' idea when he heard about Shelke's condition," the teen answered. "He and all our Summons helped me somehow—Genesis created the 'tracks' the energy would flow through, and the Summons volunteered the energy needed to do the task. I wouldn't have had a power supply otherwise."

With a slow nod, Tseng drew a red orb from his pocket and said, "I've never seen this one before. A word with Genesis confirmed he'd never heard of one called 'Carbuncle' (1) before, just as he'd never heard of 'Sylph' before. This one is a protective Summon which casts Reflect, Wall, Shield, and Haste, and it's a small creature a little larger than a cat which somewhat reminds me of a canine. It isn't one, though, leaving us at a loss as to what kind of creature it is. Carbuncle is also decidedly unhelpful in that regard because it 'just is what it is', in its own words—and it's as curious as a three-year-old in the 'why' phase. I won't summon it here because as kind and gentle as it is, it's also got child-like disruptive patterns."

Eden had to chuckle at the description, but admitted he wasn't ready to deal with a creature like that, mentally or otherwise. "That's fine. I just...get protective of my Materia until I give them away."

"And you consider Carbuncle yours?" the older man asked, moving over to sit down by the head of the bed.

"Isn't it? I literally _made_ it, Tseng. It wouldn't _exist_ without me," the teen pointed out dryly.

"I do have to give you that, but it's still better if I keep it for now. I also took all your Materia, including the ones you haven't slotted, other than the Heal you replaced Odin with since everyone knows you have it." He watched as the blond teen sighed dejectedly. "Eden, I really need you to bring me up to speed on everything that's been happening and everything you've learned since you met Freyra. And as much as some of it may be data you've already shared with me or with others, I think it would be best if you just started at the beginning and covered everything, both old and new. If you're not ready to tell me your sources or things tied directly to your past, I don't want to know them unless they're directly relevant to the situation. Anything you had previously only told Genesis, or Rude, or Vant, I now need to know, so don't leave out anything, whether or not you think you've already told me."

"...That's going to take awhile."

"That's fine. We have time."

With a sigh, Eden started explaining everything he could explain, from what he'd gleaned from his library research to things he and the people he'd met had discussed, including how he'd assessed the data in question. He even included a list of his 'lucky' hits on Materia, income sources, and the items to have Ama no Murakumo made. For the most part, the man listened quietly, only asking a few questions here and there to clarify something. The whole explanation and update took about five hours, and both of them were thirsty and starving by then, so Tseng went to get food for them. They sat to eat quietly, took bathroom breaks, then settled in again, Eden clearly exhausted as he laid back in the bed.

"I think I have to agree that something or someone is directing you," the Wutain said as he eyed the teenager laying in the bed with his eyes closed.

"I had thought of that, too, because even for my usual level of luck, this is—contrived. I've found or learned things I shouldn't have, gotten items I shouldn't have, gotten into places and met people I shouldn't have. Some of those would have been normal for me, but it's definitely contrived when I get the sheer number of them I have," Eden replied, not opening his eyes. "Any one or two of them, yes, maybe even three, but not _all_ of them. Shinra Manor was really the only thing that was entirely my doing, but getting to Nibelheim was contrived by my having experienced death for the first time, and how likely is it to go mountain climbing and find a shard of Materia in the rock of the wall?"

Tseng sighed softly, then closed his eyes as he considered the new data he had—and the sheer number of things Eden had managed to keep hidden from him through no fault of his own was even larger than he'd expected. Finally, he opened his eyes again and said, "So we're actively in our judgment phase, and we have several forces working against us, forces which won't hesitate to kill us if we get out of hand in their view. By your and Genesis' intervention, we took out one of the most dangerous of those on our terms, as that was Deepground. However, that won't save us from the President, Scarlet, Heidegger, or Hojo, or even from Fuhito, and Zirconaide is an unknown."

He paused for a long moment as Eden's eyes opened to meet his. The Wutain went on, "With Zirconaide, some of us have a chance of survival, because the Weapon is actually also trying to save the Planet, not destroy it. Fuhito and the Shinra executives either don't care or revel in the destruction, so will make a concerted effort to take us down. The only one we can safely do anything about is Fuhito, as it would be too suspicious for the general public if a bunch of the executives died at once. We can arrange for them to be picked off or have accidents, but not too quickly, so we'll have to make do. Maybe you won't understand my saying this, but the most dangerous of the executives is actually Scarlet, so she would be my first choice to remove."

"Not Hojo or Heidegger? Not the President?" the blond asked with a raised brow.

"No," he answered, shaking his head. "They're bad and need to go, there's no doubt of that, but Scarlet has a drive to hold power unlike I've ever seen, and she's every bit as skilled an engineer as Reeve. The difference is—she builds and controls all of Shinra's most powerful mechanical weapons, while he only holds the security codes for basic city and building functions. With his skills, it's possible he controls the security codes for anything directly in defense of Midgar, and he may even be able to down aerial assault vehicles for a time, but the Weapons Development Department's majority of creations are self-contained units he can't hack and shut down. Scarlet alone controls those, and even Sephiroth is worried about going up against some of those weapons she and her department have made. That says a lot about their strength, and with you unable to use your full skills around Reactors, well...Let's just say I'd be walking into a battle at that level with my will written and in secure hands."

"...So she's actually the real power behind Shinra, and the President is only still in power because the rest of the executives support him, not her directly?"

"Pretty much."

"Would taking out the President and putting Rufus in power help?"

"Not really. That would destabilize things at this point, causing Shinra to tear itself apart in a power struggle between him and Scarlet. While most of us in Public Safety Maintenance are firmly behind you—and therefore, behind Rufus—Heidegger still controls the regular Infantry, and he already doesn't like Rufus, so would side with Scarlet. The Infantry may not be well-trained, but there are enough of them to overrun us—even Deepground gave us better odds. Hojo knows Rufus doesn't like his experimentation while Scarlet doesn't care, so he'd also back her, and he currently pulls SOLDIER's strings, like it or not, leaving us with the support of about seven people I know about. Reeve would side with Rufus, and so would Palmer, both of whom have no tangible combat power, though having Reeve on our side is still a boon. Unfortunately, both of them can be pressured to support Scarlet to oust Rufus."

"So...Probably Scarlet, Hojo, and Heidegger would have to go before the President, and there's only so much we can do to hope the people they get replaced with are going to side with Rufus."

"Effectively. Heidegger we know is a safe one, because Lazard will be replacing him, and Lazard is on our side—especially after seeing the condition Genesis came back from Deepground in. He cares about the people working under him, and as he grew up in the Slums, if Rufus starts making things better there—which he has already begun—Lazard will stand firmly behind him."

"How can you be so sure he'll be the one to take Heidegger's position?"

"He's one of the President's illegitimate children. While the President won't acknowledge him by name, he has given him a great deal of rights and privileges no one else would have gotten otherwise. If Heidegger goes, he'll put Lazard in."

"...That's handy..."

"For us, yes. I'm also of the opinion that Scarlet's likely replacement is someone who doesn't actually care about politics and will go with whoever will give them something to do with their mind, no matter which one it is. In other words, someone who won't stand behind Rufus, but won't go against him, either. I'd prefer neutrality to anything against us currently. The real concern is with Hojo, and even that may go in our favor because of those two Deepground doctors Zack, Balto, Judet, and Illis saved."

"You mean the President would want to get one of them into power, thinking they would continue the work they had been doing in Deepground?"

"Yes."

"So...Scarlet and Hojo would be the first ones to go because they're the ones we're most uncertain about, and Heidegger would be the last before we find some way to get the President out of power. That's going to be fun."

"It will. But we're Turks, so we'll find a way. Oddly enough, we even have AVALANCHE on our side, so they'll help us out any way they can. If that means arranging an attack or an accident, they'll do it."

"Nice."

"And before that, we have to do something about Fuhito."

"Yeah, he's a real and immediate problem."

"I understand that you weren't aiming to kill him at the time of the invasion, as you had a fragment of Zirconaide to recover and a rush to get outside to scale the building, but..."

"If I had, I don't think AVALANCHE would be willing to work with us right now."

"...I suppose that's also a valid point."

"You suppose?" Eden sounded entirely amused as he asked the question, then yawned. "But I think we really have to call this quits or I'll fall asleep in the middle of it."

Chuckling, Tseng rose as he said, "Get some rest, then. You should only be here another week, so I'll see you back in my office then. Don't be late!" He then left the room, and Eden was still smiling in amusement when he drifted into sleep not long after.

CA

The next week passed fairly quickly, but a few days before he was due to be released, Genesis stepped into the room, dressed in his black outfit and red coat, his sword proudly at his waist. The red haired man smiled as he saw the blond sitting up in bed, and the younger man gave him a smile in return.

"Looks like you're all healed up," Eden commented, looking wryly amused.

"I am—have been physically for awhile now. I keep forgetting you don't have Mako enhancements and expected you to be healed as quickly as I was, if not faster. Though, the fact that you survived being steam-rolled by a monster is pretty impressive," Genesis chuckled, moving over to the window to look outside. "Nice view. You don't get the fog on this side."

"Yeah. I just don't spend much time admiring it," Eden shrugged. "How's Shelke doing?"

"Better than expected," the older man answered, turning to the seats and choosing one to sit in. "Have they told you all the things that have been going on since the raid on Deepground, or was it really just you giving a highly detailed report to Tseng?"

"Mostly the latter. Was there something besides everyone recovering and plans being made to hunt Fuhito?"

"Argento took back her own name, Sora Kagawa (2), and has joined SOLDIER as a First who has the title Commander. People questioned that until we held a sparring match three days ago—all four of us in a battle royal. Seriously, none of us could take the others down, but when Sora and I both attacked Angeal together, we took him out, then turned and hit Sephiroth, taking him out, too. When we were up against each other, we—came out a draw with a simultaneous end-battle move. Everyone is rather reverent towards all four of us now," Genesis explained, looking a little amused as Eden chuckled. "I'm guessing the rules for SOLDIER will have to be changed to start letting in the odd few women who don't care if they ever have kids."

He paused and tipped his head to the side for a minute, then said, "It's actually partly thanks to Sora and partly thanks to Reeve that Shelke recovered as well as she did...even that I have in so short a time. Sora and Reeve have actually gotten very protective of Shelke, even though Sora doesn't show it with her expression. You were right when you said Shinra wouldn't just let Shelke go—they're not letting any of the experiments go, actually. The thing is that Sora's active joining of SOLDIER prompted all of them to wind up in Shinra employee positions.

"The remnants of the Deepground soldiers the Turks saved have followed her into SOLDIER, and the President has agreed that they fall under her command, or Sephiroth's if she's not available, but no one else can give them orders unless they decide to humor the Turks. Shelke is now attending Shinra Academy and helping Reeve out in her free time as well, because she can access databases and program functions based on vague thoughts rather than details calculations. Fact is, he's heavy into programming, and her SND ability fits right in, and she actually doesn't mind doing it—what she minded was Deepground's method.

"The thirteen-year-old girl is also going to Shinra Academy, but has no particular strength yet, so she'll be placed with a department later. The sixteen-year-old girl and one of the men, Jessie and Biggs (3), are actually friends who both have also started working for Reeve in construction and engineering. It turns out they both have similar interests, though he's not as much into programming as she is, but once he showed them his programs and models, they took to them and are quite happy there. One of the experiments even joined the Space Department, and both of the rescued scientists have joined the Science Department, though apparently they work independently of Hojo and he's not allowed to give them orders or intervene in their work. The rest have become general employees, secretaries, and so on for the time being, and it's not like they weren't needed in those positions, so all of them were assigned housing up here on the Plate."

"Sounds like a lot more has been happening than anyone wanted to tell me for some reason," Eden commented dryly, and Genesis chuckled.

"Or they didn't realize you'd want to know."

"Elfé knew, and Rufus should have known by extension, since he was here. Tseng should also have known."

"Yes, well, that's part of why I'm here to update you. Anyway, there's more. Wutai has—gotten strange. After we took that bunch of their soldiers out here, they suddenly changed tactics and have started adding non-Wutains to their rosters. I think some of them are AVALANCHE's people, but they did a sudden, massive push-back against our forces there, so Angeal and Zack were sent to help out. We lost a lot of land in that move, and the forces there haven't been able to reclaim it because Wutai took up a holding formation no one can figure out how to break."

"...Geez, I'm torn between wanting to support them and wanting to support Shinra," Eden snorted after Genesis' explanation.

"Did Rude tell you he was sent to track down Fuhito?" Genesis asked.

"Yes, he stopped by on his way out."

"Did he tell you how many and who Tseng sent?"

"No, just that it was several of them."

"Rude, Reno, Vant, Kariya, Cissnei, Freyra, Maur, Balto, Judet, Quis, and Illis."

"Er...Isn't that nearly all the Turks?"

"Yup. The only ones left in the city are Tseng, Alvis, Emma, Ruluf, and you, but you don't count with your current status."

"Wow..."

"Zack has gone haywire Mastering Materia. It's like every time he reaches a point where he calms down, after a few days to a week, he has to up his output into the Materia just to get back to a calm state. He's also doing it faster. He's kept the originals of every one of his Materia, but passed on to me at least three of each type."

"...Holy. I may have high energy, but not that much. What is he, a fricken battery pack?" Ed's stunned expression made Genesis laugh.

"That's what we're starting to wonder, too. The nice part is that we don't have to keep providing him more Materia because every time he Masters one of the new babies, it also produces a baby, so he's got a good cycle going. I actually handed him my Alexander Materia, and he returned it and a newly-Mastered baby _and_ a half-Mastered baby to me the next day, so you can have either of the two new babies," the red haired man offered.

"Geez...That guy," the blond said, shaking his head in amazement. "Which one do you think would be better to have on me?"

"Probably the Mastered one. I'll give everything to you once you're out of here. Sephiroth has been assigned as Rufus' guard, so he can't go anywhere until someone in the Turks can take over again. Several other Firsts have been sent to take care of the usual monster-hunting missions, and Sora was sent to Rocket Town with a few Seconds and some Infantry to establish a perimeter around the town. The number of attackers is increasing, and they're actually preparing a rocket to go into space right now, so they don't want to take any chances. I'll be heading out for a mission tomorrow and will probably be away for about a week, so I wanted to see you to discuss Elfé's issue before I go," Genesis explained, pulling out the sheets with the arrays he'd drawn.

"Then it's a good thing I've been drawing out the arrays for the other four shards. Unfortunately, we need a much bigger space to do this," Eden smiled, pointing at the top drawer of the same end-table-like device his clothes and gear were in.

It only took a minute to get all the papers out so they could compare the arrays, but all they really established was that there was a definite pattern to the arrays and that about eleven or twelve percent of the total had been damaged. For _any_ series of Materia arrays, eleven or twelve percent was a huge quantity of damage, and it was no wonder the five fragments were somewhat screwed up. Both of them also noticed there were actually array types with functions they hadn't paid much attention to before.

"You're the expert on arrays, so what are these ones indicating?" Genesis asked as he held several of those sheets between the two of them.

"I'm not entirely sure of all the details, but based on these points, they're indicating emotional states, and that one seems to be the basic 'summon' function array which exists in other Summon Materia..." Eden mused.

"That's what we need, then," Genesis grinned.

Soon after, he had left the room, leaving the younger man with all the papers so he could check them over and compare them to other types of Materia.

 **Notes:**

(1) Carbuncle is another Materia I added, largely because it existed in many other Final Fantasy games. I sort of took its appearance from the FFIX version Eiko summons.

(2) This is a made-up name for Argento's non-Tsviet self, obviously. Sora means 'sky' in Japanese and can be used for either a girl or a boy.

(3) Yes, these are two of the three who were working with Barret's AVALANCHE in the main game, just 7 years younger, hence them being 16.


	64. 62-Preparing

**A/N:** **I've now got over 100 registered followers** (that's a new record for me! :D), so **thank you so much** to everyone who is reading and enjoying the story!

Preparing

When Eden was finally given the all-clear and released from the hospital, he headed for the Turks' offices several floors up and stepped inside the large room leading to the private office which used to be Veld's. Alvis was in the room and gave him a wave as he said, "About time they let you out!"

The blond teen chuckled and agreed, "Yeah, I hate hospitals, but doctors and nurses can be scary when you're their patient."

With a chuckle, the auburn haired Turk waved him towards the office door—which opened as he was approaching, letting him see Tseng standing there. "You're late, Eden," the Wutain stated.

"Up yours, Tseng," the blond snorted, making Alvis choke and Tseng chuckle.

"You must be in a bad mood," the older man commented.

"The doctors kept me _three hours_ longer than I needed to be kept! You think I would be in a good one?" Eden complained in reply, tone whining and brow raised as he stepped past the Wutain and into the office. A glance around showed that very little had changed in it, despite the hand-off from Veld to Tseng. "Not much different here." He flopped down in one of the seats across the desk from the office owner's seat.

Closing the door, the black haired man made his way to the seat behind the desk, sat, and said, "It generally doesn't change much because nearly everything in it is either functional or viable reference material. Most of what changes is due to updates in codes and protocol, which happen whenever they happen. Now, you may have noticed how dead the place is—"

"You sent nearly everyone to—hopefully find and take out Fuhito. What does Scarlet know about Corel?" Eden asked abruptly.

"I beg your pardon?" Tseng asked, taken aback by the question and the very abrupt change in topic.

"Rufus mentioned to me once that Scarlet had told him Corel was like any other mining town," the teen elaborated. "Why does she know that?"

"She's opened talks with them to have a Reactor placed in Mount Corel."

"Uh-huh. And the President thinks that's a good idea? Or does he think a show of force will push them into agreeing?"

"She's been remarkably discreet, actually. She only keeps two Infantrymen with her to walk around town, both of them relaxed unless something actually comes up. No, she was the one sent because some of her machines have to be in the mountains to establish the zone the Reactor will be built in, regardless. The President thought it would expedite the process. On the other hand, the Gongaga Reactor recently exploded, and Balto informed me the village was badly damaged. That tells us Fuhito is near there, so I felt you might want to take a trip to check things out—and maybe warn the locals about Scarlet's temper and lack of patience."

"Won't warning them make it harder for them to deal with her, not easier?"

"You've met them. Is that what you think will happen?"

"It'll take away their livelihoods. Either they agree to it without feeling they're being threatened, or there _will_ be problems. If it's true she's being discreet, they don't yet feel threatened. On the other hand, if Fuhito is there, he might just try for her directly and to Hell with the town."

"Then you agree to head to the area?"

"None of the other Turks went there?"

"Illis did—that's her hometown. The problem is that she hasn't reported since yesterday. Reno has mainly been on chopper detail to pick up and drop off our people, so as soon as he gets back, he'll take you out to Corel."

"Okay. Tell Rufus to contact Elfé to get her on standby to help the town in case the worst happens—because Scarlet'll firebomb them if they refuse to let Shinra put in a Reactor if everything you've said about her is true."

"I'll do that. Before you go, you may want to stop by the shops on the second floor, and I have some things to return to you," Tseng said as he rose and moved over to the shelves. One was a wooden box, which he pulled out, opened, and withdrew another, smaller box from, then closed it again and put it back on the shelf. He returned to the desk to push the box across the desktop towards Eden.

When Eden opened the box, his jaw fell open—it was a decidedly full box, and even included an object which was gift-wrapped in red wrapping paper tied with a golden bow. It was split into two sections, one smaller with what looked like his own Materia (the ones Tseng had confiscated) in it and the other which was larger and held the gift and many more Materia. All of the Materia were sitting in something that reminded him of the bottom of an egg carton in sets of seven, keeping them steady and making them easily stackable. A quick check of his showed Alexander had been added to Sylph, Carbuncle, Aerial Attack, the spare Added Effect, Sense, W Summon, Speed Plus, Magic Plus, Strength Plus, the spare Mirage, Time, and Transform, leaving one empty space on the top row of the two-tall stack.

The other part of the box, where the gift was, had in it triples of Mastered Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Gravity, Poison, Long Range Attack, Elemental, All, Restore, Heal, and Revive Materia, taking up nearly three sets of seven stacked two high. There was an extra Long Range Attack (it was purple) in the set, but it wasn't Mastered yet. Genesis and Zack definitely were the ones to have provided those, though where had the Long Range Attack come from? The gift, however, made him look up at Tseng questioningly, but the older man just gave him an amused look and motioned for him to open it.

Pulling the gift out of the box, the blond teen realized it was actually a fair size, so he opened it carefully, finding a white box with a lid he could lift off it. When he removed the lid, there was a card on top of the items inside, and the image on the front made him smile wryly, as it showed a generic young man in a hospital bed with a leg in a cast and an arm in a sling. As he lifted the card to open it, he saw what was underneath—a black ribbon pinned to the top of the velvet-padded board inside, and a well-crafted, specially-made dagger unlike any he'd ever seen before.

It was a fairly basic blade, clearly meant to be used, and about six inches long, not including the handle, though if he looked at it the way he currently was with the point facing down, it somewhat resembled an elongated and narrowed heart. The blade was the clean, clear silver of well-crafted steel—or mythril-steel, as Gaia's blacksmiths seemed to prefer crafting with mythril than iron or anything else—and it had an anchor stemming from the top indent of the 'heart' to attach the hilt to. Unlike his sword, the hilt was made of a red-hued metal he didn't recognize, and the grip was in dark leather. Best of all, it had two pairs of linked slots and four single slots for Materia.

"Whoa..." he breathed as he gazed at the dagger.

He didn't realize Tseng had gotten up and moved to look over his shoulder until the Wutain's voice came from right beside and behind him, "Very nice. Genesis sure spared no expense on that one."

Starting then blinking up at the new leader of the Turks, Eden then looked back at the dagger and the card he held. Opening said card, he read what it said, the first part obviously being Genesis':

 _Hey Eden! If you're reading this, you're finally out of the hospital, so congratulations! As thanks for everything you've done for me since we were introduced, I thought you might like another good-quality weapon. Since finding good daggers is especially hard, I commissioned Sieg to make you the Heartseeker—when he heard it was for you, he got rather pleased and had it ready two days after I ordered it. Seriously, how did you make him_ like _you? Anyway, enjoy your new dagger! I have no doubt it'll serve you well!_

Below that was written in a different, more child-like script:

 _It's Shelke. We haven't really had a chance to meet properly yet, but you saved my life and helped reunite me with my sister and a brother and father I didn't know I had. In Deepground, we didn't have much, but I was given lots of these, in about four different colors. I gave some of them to others for helping out, and you get a black one. It's just called a Ribbon, but it prevents all status changes—while wearing it, you won't get silenced, poisoned, minied, frogged, confused, or anything else which would change your condition for the worst. For example, Slow and Stop won't work, but Haste will, so it should be a big help to you. Thanks again!_

The Turk had to blink several times at her message before reading the next part of the card, which was Shalua's:

 _Thanks so much for saving Shelke and Genesis, Eden! I've decided I'm going to be a doctor specializing in prosthetics, and I'll help Reeve figure out how your leg works so we can fix it for you! Also, Shelke and I are working with Reeve, Jessie, and Biggs to make something else for you, too, but it was Reeve and Jessie's idea to do it, so you'll just have to wait on that one._

Chuckling, he went on to read the last line, which was in Kariya's writing:

 _I think I understand what you meant now...The only way to fix the world is to fix the people on it, too. Thank you for bringing my kids back to me safely._

All-in-all, the four of them had managed to fill both blank sides of the inside of the card, and they'd been writing fairly small, too. Eden smiled and shook his head as he closed it and lifted out the dagger, testing the weight of it. He could tell right away just how perfectly-balanced it was, and it was lighter than the one he currently had on him, so he was eager to switch them off.

"How many people did Shelke give a Ribbon to, do you know?" Eden asked Tseng as he returned the dagger to the box and unpinned the black strip of cloth. As soon as he touched it, he could feel the power—or whatever it was—in the cloth, making it feel like water as he curled it between his fingers.

"Damned if any of us knows why, but while in Deepground, she'd acquired about two dozen of them, so quite happily gave several to the Turks who she came into direct contact with. That means you, Reno, Emma, Ruluf, Freyra, and Quis, then Cissnei, who was guarding all of you until the battle was under control enough for us to get you out—and me when Genesis asked her to. She's also given one to Reeve, Elena, Anthony—who she recognized right away as someone else you had saved—Genesis, Sephiroth, and Angeal. I think at one point, she even met Elfé somehow and gave one to her, but I'm not sure about Zack or Rufus. She still has several left, but will probably find people to hand them off to in short order."

Chuckling, the teen tugged his hair out of the tie he had it in and tied the Ribbon around it, instead. "Sounds like Deepground was stockpiling them to keep them out of our hands, but they didn't need or want them, so just passed them to her because she was the one most likely to need them. Well, that's a huge benefit to us now, so I'm fine with that. I'll thank her properly when I get back from Corel. When will Reno be here?"

"In about an hour. You have time to go check the shop and get back to the landing pad before he gets back. And Eden—you've got more money in your account than you realize right now, so don't hesitate to spend whatever you like, frivolous or not," the Wutain man told him, then paused and drew a Magic Materia which was milky green from his pocket to hand it to the blond teen. "That's a Full Cure. The copy Veld gave me after a mission a few years back finally Mastered, and that's the baby it produced. Master it and use it in your experiments." He then waved the blond away as he went back to his seat.

"Whoa, thanks—this one seems really powerful," Eden gaped, then gave his head a shake to shake off the shock. "Sure," the younger Turk agreed, rising with the box in his hands, dagger and Full Cure safely inside it. He quickly left the office, waved to Alvis on his way out, and headed for the elevator to go to the second floor. The only other person in the elevator when he got on was a Second with their helmet on, so he didn't recognize him right away.

"So they finally let you out, Eden?" the Second asked in amusement.

"Finally, yes," the teen agreed in amusement. "You're...?"

"Kunzel, a friend of Zack's," the Second clarified. (1)

"Oh, one of the Reactor guards and one of the lobby guards. Thanks for both," the young Turk grinned, and Kunzel gave a smile and nod back.

"What are you up to now? Almost everyone's been sent away on important missions, but I haven't heard what they planned to have you do when you recovered," the other young man commented.

"Tseng ordered me to go see what's in the shops before my ride gets here. I'm off on a mission, too, but I can't go anywhere for about another hour, anyway."

"Wow, they sure keep you busy."

"I've been riding a bed too much lately, anyway. A mission will be a nice change of pace," Eden answered wryly. "Staying still too long drives me crazy."

"Just like Zack," Kunzel chuckled. "I wish you luck, then. I hope you've been working out a bit before they released you from the hospital."

"I did, as much as the doctors would let me. I'm in pretty good shape, and getting back up to par won't take much. I'm used to the process, anyway."

"...Okay, then you should be fine. Have you heard that the President gave his okay on a project to make the Reactors more efficient?"

"Oh, he did? No, that's a new one I hadn't heard yet. I'm guessing part of the reason for all the missions lately is to clear monsters from around the Reactors to let technicians in so they can make the changes?"

"Yeah, sure is. Otherwise, we'd only have gone if the villagers nearby complained about monsters, which they aren't right now."

"Have you heard anything about other changes?"

"The only thing of note is that some anonymous businessman set up a company to hire people in the Slums to clean up all the garbage, recycle what can be reused, and properly dispose of the rest well outside the city's borders. Almost fifty people in each Sector are employed just working on that. I'm not sure why, but they seem to be putting marks in places as they clear, like they're making some kind of grid. Otherwise, there hasn't been anything."

"Now that's an entrepreneur to reuse stuff that's been relegated as junk," Eden chuckled. The elevator doors opened on second, so he added as he stepped out, "It was nice talking with you, and I'll see you around sometime, Kunzel."

"Yeah, see you around," Kunzel agreed with a smile as the doors closed again.

Facing the shops, Eden started checking them for everything he could think of that he might want. It didn't take him long to find that one of the shops had All Materia on hand, so he bought a couple more of them—though they cost twenty thousand gil apiece, he could only have so many on at a time, even with the maximum number of slots he could have on three weapons and two bracers. In the same shop, he found they had a single Materia which was apparently a Bolt Blade, and quickly found the system which combined two Materia shards. Taking the Bolt Blade Materia someone had made and left behind, he added it to the ones in the box to look at later, as it would give him an idea of how their version of 'fusion' worked—though the system doing the fusion was obviously very limited by combination types and to two shards.

Not long after, he found the weapons and bracers shops and realized they had several kinds of the latter ranging from basic Bronze Bangles without slots and Leather Gloves with only one slot to the ones he'd previously used to even more advanced types. For weapons, that included Crystal Gloves and Kaiser Knuckles and for bracers, the Shinra Alphas and Betas, and even Wizard Bracelets (2) like Genesis had! When he saw the Wizard Bracelets, he immediately bought two of them at twelve thousand gil apiece—four pairs of linked slots on each gave him plenty to work with. Finally, in the weapons shop, he found that the Kaiser Knuckles had eight slots, two linked and six independent, so also bought one of them at fifteen thousand gil.

There were also a lot of other things in the various shops, but right then, nothing really drew his attention, so he decided to remove the Materia from the gear he was replacing—his dagger, glove, and both bracers—and sell said gear so he could get some ready cash. It was only a total of three thousand gil, but it was still cash-in-hand he could use if he wanted to without it being tracked by anyone—and he was sure Shinra tracked what money was being used for what if it went through their card.

Once he'd put the cash in his pocket, he headed back to the elevator and up to the landing platform on the fifty-ninth floor. A chopper was landing as he stepped outside, making him blink and head over to it since he could see Reno in the window. The man got up as he approached, and shortly after, the back door opened to let him in, but Reno didn't help him get in that time. That was fine by the blond, since he had some energy to expend anyway. He readily jumped into the back of the chopper and Reno yanked the door shut behind him, then motioned for him to follow him to the cockpit.

"Sit in the co-pilot's seat," Reno said as he sat and pulled on his seat belt—at least, he pulled on the section which went around the waist, but didn't pull on the two triangular straps which would link in the middle of the chest to create a cross. "And find somewhere to put that box, yo."

"Actually, now that I've got a bunch of new gear, I need to sort my Materia before I set it aside anywhere," Eden said dryly, mimicking Reno's actions with the belt.

"Do that first, then, yo," the bright red haired eighteen-year-old agreed readily as he directed the chopper to take off.

The blond Turk quickly began sorting through his Materia and the functions each allowed, re-allocating them to other gear he had on him. He now had forty Materia slots to put them in, so had plenty to play with, and just as many Materia on him to be able to play with some of it, too. The first and most obvious thing was the Summons, which all didn't need a linked slot to function or to gain functionality, so he put Odin, Alexander, Sylph, and Carbuncle in the four non-linked slots on the dagger, then paired Elemental and Gravity and added in Enemy Skill and Float as he'd already had. Shiva, Ifrit, Titan, and Ramuh were moved from his sword to his new glove, and he used the one paired slot on it to have Restore and All functional. The last two items he decided to place on the glove were Sense and Manipulate, both things anyone could buy pretty cheaply.

He then moved on to the more difficult part of the task of sorting what would go in his sword and his bracers, which each had four pairs of linked slots. To begin with, he decided to move Revive and Final Attack to the bracer he'd keep hidden on his ankle, so started working from there with things he didn't want to show openly. Full Cure and All went on it as well, and he decided to try the Aerial Attack and incomplete Long Range Attack Materias. As Mirage and All were his next best trumps, they also went in the hidden bracer. The other bracer took the five Independents (Guard, Health, Speed, Magic, and Strength Plus), Time, and the paired Heal and All. Finally, on his sword, he paired Poison and Added Effect like usual, used Transform, Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth, then decided to try W Summon because he had one more free slot.

By the time he was done, he had to heave a sigh of relief before slipping all his gear on where he wanted it. Reno gave an impressed whistle, then a chuckle as he saw where Eden's dagger and the bracer around his ankle went, but the blond's only complaint was that the Kaiser Knuckle wasn't a glove, it was a series of metal loops fitted to his fingers at the base. After a pause to consider them, he recalled the fact that one of the things he'd kept on him from the start was the pair of soft, cotton gloves he'd transmuted near Fort Condor back when he'd first arrived on Gaia. Pulling them out, he pulled them on and fitted the knuckles over them, then made sure his visible bracer and his sword were properly in place before setting the box down near his feet with all his spares in it.

"Can I just leave the box here until you take me back to Midgar?" he asked the pilot as he sat back and closed his eyes for a minute.

"Yeah. Actually, because Illis is missin', I have to stay in Corel with you until we find her, anyway, yo—though Tseng hasn't registered us as partners for this case. I'm mainly supposed ta look for her while you're scopin' out the situation with Scarlet and seein' if you can catch sight of Fuhito, yo," Reno explained. "Our nearest—and only—backup will be either Balto at Gongaga or Maur at Costa del Sol, but no other Turks are in the area, yo. Tseng was mostly sendin' everyone back to their hometowns due to familiarity for the hunt."

"Got it. Though, if Fuhito _is_ in Corel, he's probably got Illis," Eden answered, frowning a bit and opening his eyes to look out the window. He could see water passing by below them. "How do you tell where we are to know you're going the right way?" the younger teen asked curiously.

Reno pointed at a screen above and between the two seats, where there was a color image of a world map with three vivid red dots on it. "The dots are the Shinra choppers in the air right now, ours is number BK-32—so remember it, yo! I can flip a switch ta show every chopper, in the air or on the ground, 'n' other switches show other vehicle types. Pretty much everythin' Shinra makes has a tracker in it, yo. If someone at the Shinra building has coordinates for a pilot ta go to, that'll show up in green, but otherwise, it's up ta the pilot to know the world map well enough ta navigate. Tseng told me ta give ya a crash course in flyin' one, yo, so fiddle with the switches below the map so you can see what's showin' up and what switch does what."

"It won't interfere with you?" Eden asked with a raised brow.

"Nope. I'm an expert pilot, yo, and I know exactly where I'm goin', map or no map," the red haired man grinned.

"Nice."

With that, Eden began his crash course in piloting a Shinra helicopter—or any helicopter, for that matter, as such machines hadn't existed in Amestris.

 **Notes:**

(1) Kunzel and Luxiere and the Thirds with them weren't actually promoted because they didn't go into Deepground, but they got 'Commendations' (basically, kudos and a favor from the higher ups), and will get promoted faster than they would have normally. When or if I'll ever note that, I don't know. Currently, there are only 10 Thirds, as the rest of the Thirds have been promoted to Second, and all the previous Seconds except Kunzel and Luxiere have been promoted to First, so **there are a shit-load of Firsts now, including Zack** , and next to no Thirds. O.O Sorry, just thought I should clarify that. Other than Kunzel and Luxiere, it will be a VERY long time before any other Seconds are promoted to First.

(2) For my purposes, I'm discarding the 'Shinra shop' in Before Crisis and Crisis Core (there wasn't a shop accessible in the Shinra building in the main game) and assuming they 'have' everything other than some Materia and specialty weapons available there. People have reasons for taking certain items but not others, after all, so Turks have certain things they prefer to use and SOLDIERs have certain things _they_ prefer to use, meaning the games only provided those lists, but Ed is taking advantage of the _whole_ available list.


	65. 63-Serching Corel

**A/N:** Since a guest review actually introduced a viable question or two about the technology of Gaia/FFVII I thought I should answer, at the end of the chapter is some data I don't really have a way to introduce into the story text.

 **100 reviews now, too! Thank you again everyone!**

Searching Corel

When they reached their destination, Ed knew enough to land the helicopter safely in the desert outside of Corel (he'd have trouble landing in a smaller or more uneven space, though), near where Scarlet and her armed guards were waiting with a few villagers. It looked like the Mayor, another old man, and Dyne were there to greet them, so both worked quickly to shut down the chopper, finishing before the group had crossed half the distance between their landing site and where they had been waiting. Both got up and went to the door to the hold, Reno slinging it open so both could jump to the ground. The Turk with fire-hydrant red hair shut it again behind them.

"Eden, good to see you back on your feet," Scarlet addressed the blond, and Dyne's eyes widened in concern.

"Thank you, Ma'am," Eden replied. "It's good to be back on them." He knew he had to be polite to her, but he sure didn't want to be. His past experience with such things was very useful right then (playing ego games with Yoki, especially).

She gave a nod and said, "I met Illis the day before yesterday around noon, but haven't seen her since. I don't think she left the area, because she wouldn't have left some of her basic gear behind in that case, and would most likely have informed both Tseng and myself of the fact. Reno, you were assigned to find her, so you can have a look at the room she was staying in. All her things are still there, untouched. Eden, come with me for the moment, as we have a few things to discuss."

"Yo," Reno agreed, and the two joined her to walk into town. They quickly arranged themselves for Scarlet and her guards to walk in the front and the townsmen and Reno at the back.

Dyne fell in with Eden, who was walking a few steps behind the woman, asking, "What does she mean, what happened to you, Ed?"

The blond teen saw Scarlet turn her head slightly, so decided it wasn't worth talking about in detail. "I got steam-rolled by a monster while on a mission, that's all," he answered, making Dyne stare in shock.

Ahead of him, the woman laughed and asked, "Oh, is that what you call nearly getting your chest compressed?"

"Chest compressed!?" Dyne gasped. "How are you even still _alive_?"

"Um, you're talking to the same person who spent over an hour in an inhabited Harpy nest and came out without a scratch, remember?" Eden asked the young man dryly, and Reno gave a snort.

"Yeah, Rude told me that story, yo," the other Turk chuckled. "He wasn't detailed, but I seriously got the impression it wasn't quite as simple as usin' Manipulate on it."

Ignoring the older teen, Eden said, "To answer your question, Ma'am, that _is_ what happened. The monster in question suddenly whipped around a corner going so fast it was literally leaving afterimages, and slammed full-force into my chest. Almost did the same to Commander Rhapsodos, too, but he had his sword in hand by then so sliced it in half just by raising his blade, it was going so fast."

A long silence followed the words before she said, "So that part was literally a fluke, is what you're saying. Well, I guess that makes more sense now. Good job on coming back alive, though."

"Most of the Turks' missions are classed as suicide missions. Every other Turk who has come back from missions should get the same kudos," Eden said with a shrug, watching her for her reaction.

She gave a very un-lady-like snort and said, "Yes, I guess you have a point."

"Nice one, Eden," Reno said so quietly the blond teen almost didn't hear him, making the two older men stare at him in confused surprise. He was ginning like a maniac, so the older men stepped back a bit, gazing at him warily.

"By the way, Eden," Scarlet began, turning her head to look at the Turk behind her. She saw him watching her, so she went on, "Apparently, you know some of the locals?"

"I came through here—four times, though only two of those I stayed for a bit. I was traveling at the time, so I checked the area out some and got to know a few of the locals when I did. Dyne was one of the ones who helped pull me out of the Harpy nest."

She raised a brow and asked, "So what _did_ happen then? I expect you to answer honestly, Eden. Harpies aren't easy to use Manipulate on for an extended time."

"Yes, do tell us honestly, Eden! I can't wait to share with the other Turks, yo!" Reno gushed, slinging an arm around the younger Turk's shoulder.

"Hey, stop that!" Eden glared, but ruined it by laughing as he tried to shove the older teen's arm off him. Unfortunately, Reno didn't want to let go, so he finally just sighed and said, "There was a pool of water there, so I figured I'd go for a swim while I waited, even dove down to where they apparently have their nest in the bottom of the pool—the place where the eggs hatch. Without me realizing it, Manipulate wore off, but when I came back up—I was apparently adopted by the adult Harpy. It was quite content to have me cuddle up with the other babies, who all decided they quite liked me, too, and spent most of that time sleeping in my lap or on my chest. After that, I only used Manipulate when I was going to leave so the adult didn't try to stop me."

A long silence followed the explanation, then Reno burst out laughing and pulled Eden against him as he ruffled his hair, causing the younger teen to yelp. "Oh, yeah, that's awesome. Everyone'll love that story, yo! I'll forward it to them right away!"

"Aw, come on, Reno..." the younger teen answered plaintively.

Suddenly, everyone else was laughing, too, Scarlet with her hand over her mouth (1) and the rest openly. Dyne also reached over to ruffle the teen's hair, and everyone turned to stare at the laughing group as they came into town, all wondering what was so funny. It didn't take long for them to reach the inn, where one of the Infantrymen led Reno inside and to Illis' room and the rest continued to a house near the Mayor's home, where the other Infantryman stopped outside and the townsmen all went back to their business in town. Scarlet and Eden went inside, and the woman flopped down on one of the sofas, motioning Eden to sit across from her.

When he did, she met his gaze evenly to say, "You're here because there's a good chance a terrorist is in this area. Tell me what the situation actually is."

Knowing he had to choose his words carefully, he drew in a deep breath and released it as a sigh, then began his 'tale'. "After the attack on Midgar, there was a split in AVALANCHE's forces and one of their leaders of sorts broke away from the group. He's a scientist and tactician by trade and training, and doesn't actually feel the emotional range of a proper human being. We don't have a lot of intel, but—the guy is enough of a problem that one of AVALANCHE's people risked approaching Rufus and myself while we were in town one day to tell us the man in question was dangerous in the extreme. His goal is to kill as many people as he can, and his method is by attacking the Reactors, which was why the Gongaga Reactor exploded not long ago. His skills scientifically, as well as his methods, aren't far off Hojo's, and what he's been trying to create for some time is essentially what Deepground was supposed to be. Now, it's one thing when it's Shinra, but going up against an independent's army..."

Scarlet eyed him for a long minute, then leaned forward so her elbows rested on her knees. "Eden, why were _you_ sent to find him?"

"I met him before while I was traveling, so I know very well who I'm looking for," the teen replied evenly, meeting her gaze.

"Was he a friend of yours?"

"No. He always rubbed me the wrong way, and I have no compunctions about killing him if that's what it takes."

"So, who is he, then, besides a former member of AVALANCHE?"

"Name's Fuhito, tends to wear a gray shirt and pants, has a Wutain background with short, brown hair and glasses. His looks are mainly like any other Wutain's but it's obvious he's not highly athletic, and he makes up for his lack of built muscle with technological devices, like new kinds of guns and things like that."

She sat back thoughtfully, a small frown on her face as she gazed absently towards shelf behind the young Turk. Finally, she said, "I may have seen someone with those looks in the area a few days ago. Had I known sooner, I might have contacted Tseng or taken care of it myself, but as things stand, I only recall seeing him on my way back into town, near the outskirts, once."

"To which side of town was that?" the teen blinked, leaning forward a bit himself.

"At that point, east. Is there any chance he'd make a bargain to serve in my department or Hojo's?"

"Unfortunately, no. As much as he apparently worships Hojo, his goal is just to destroy. I don't even think it's something as specific as 'destroy Shinra', I think he just believes he needs to destroy _everyone_ , and he hates Shinra with a passion."

"In other words, he's not a potential resource. Very well, use whatever force you wish against him. I'd rather not have to deal with a loose cannon while I'm preparing the area for a new Reactor." The woman paused, then asked bluntly, "How many of you knew about the raid on Deepground before it happened?"

"Er..." he began, taken aback by the change in topic and the topic itself. "A few others and I, myself, had actually had information 'on' Deepground for some time, but we didn't know about the raid until we were called in to participate. Even the SOLDIERs weren't aware of it until it happened. I can't speak for the participants as a whole or even as individuals, but I was left with the impression that no one was willing to lose Genesis, and that the ones in charge fully believed their actions were protecting the interests and the good name of Shinra Company. Some probably also actually felt insulted that 'they weren't good enough' and Shinra needed yet another military force to surpass them, so a lot of the SOLDIERs especially may have been going to prove that they were the stronger ones and Deepground wasn't necessary."

"Hmm..." the blond woman murmured, then sat back and relaxed as she thought about what he was saying. Finally, she said, "I suppose I can see that. Actually, you all did prove the point, and rather than having Deepground as that hidden unit, the President is seriously considering letting the regular SOLDIERs apply for those kinds of enhancements voluntarily. What were your orders, the ones the Turks were given?"

"For Reno and me, to penetrate as deeply as possible and find and free Genesis, along with any of the other experimental subjects as we could who were still sane. Another pair of Turks had those same orders for the housing area, and a third pair was allocated to search the rest of the facility. Tseng was our coordinator and sniper while Veld and two others joined the frontal assault with the SOLDIERs. The two other pairs had targets—two of them to attack the rear of the enemy assault and the other to destroy their weapons storage before joining the assault on the enemy, also from the rear."

"How did you manage to get in even far enough to come up from their rear?"

"Absolutely necessary vents and things like their internal sewers."

Scarlet went cross-eyed for a moment at his answer, then asked, "You Turks got in there by climbing through dirty, dusty, decades-old vents?"

"Well, yes. How _else_ would we have done it?" the teen asked dryly, lips twitching in amusement. The woman began laughing with a rather grating and distinctive 'kya ha ha' sound, and it took her awhile to stop.

"You're certainly worth the pay you get, even just for the entertainment value. In all honesty, the situations you get into are—intriguing. I've never heard of a Turk who could befriend monsters so easily or actually figure out a route through the vents which would function."

With a shrug, he answered, "Neither of those is a first-time thing for me. Just like scaling a building to try to stop an attack isn't new. But you do realize the design of the Shinra building makes it an easy target for climbers, right?"

Her look became sardonic as she smirked and said, "Oh, yes, the President has finally acknowledged his error in that. We're going to be installing turrets and anti-aircraft weaponry around the building, a project Reeve and I have been exchanging schematics and plans on since the attack. Well, really, we're just finalizing plans we had already made to account for the lack, since we could see the problem in the President's basic design. He didn't want to put out that much money at that point, so it's only now we're able to finalize and install the turrets and weaponry."

"In other words, you're way ahead of him," Eden chuckled.

Inside, he was cringing, knowing now that Tseng was right and this woman was more dangerous than the President, or even Hojo—much more. Hojo may have been a sadist with a sick mind, but didn't seem to have any aspirations to power, and the President was wishy-washy at best when it came to decisions and security. Scarlet, on the other hand, recognized a security hole and made plans to close it—detailed plans which accounted for more than one contingency. If she and Reeve had arranged all that years ago, he was suddenly very grateful Reeve was their ally, not their enemy, or they'd pretty much have no chance against both Scarlet and Reeve if they were working together to rule the world.

"Very well, you may go. Report to me every evening on your progress, then head to the inn to rest. If Reno asks, I only want a report from him if he finds a lead on Illis," Scarlet told him.

The teen rose and said, "I'll do that, then. See you this evening." With that, he turned and walked out, breathing a sigh of relief once he stepped outside—and producing chuckles from the armed Infantrymen just outside the door.

"Yup, we know the feeling. She's _intense_ ," one guard commented.

Eden chuckled and agreed, "For sure. I'm glad that interrogation is over with!"

There were more chuckles as he gave the pair a wave and walked away, heading for the inn. A concerned Reno was just stepping outside as he approached, so the red haired man joined the blond, running a hand through his hair with a sigh. One of the red marks on his cheeks had smeared (were there _scars_ under them?), and in his free hand was a PHS, but Eden couldn't tell if it was Reno's or Illis'.

"Not good..." the red haired man sighed.

"What did you find?"

"She was taken against her will, but there's no real clues as to how, yo. There was a struggle in the room, an' all but one o' her knives are there, along with the rest of her things. Even her PHS is here, yo." He held up the phone as he said the last. "She'd been typin' somethin' when she was attacked, so I got the part of the message she'd done."

"And?" Eden asked with a frown.

"She'd been preparin' ta send a notice to Tseng sayin' she thought she'd seen Fuhito, yo. It didn't have any more than that, but she'd probably intended ta ask for Balto and Maur to be reassigned to Corel ta help her track 'im down. Whether he or anyone working for him took her or someone else did, this's all we've got ta go on."

"Scarlet said she caught sight of someone matching Fuhito's description on the eastern side of town as she was coming back one day. I had planned to start searching there, so..."

"Yeah, that's at least a startin' point, yo. Let's split up and start from the north and south sides of the east. I'll go south."

"Got it. Can I see the message before we go?" Ed asked. Reno handed him the PHS, which showed a low battery but was still holding power. The message was short and incomplete:

 _I've caught glimpses of a man matching the target's description three ti_

The blond gave a small sigh and nodded. "Nothing to tell us anything useful. Okay, time for some old-fashioned elbow grease."

Reno snorted and took the PHS back, closing it and sticking it in his pocket as he gave the younger Turk a nod and headed for the southeast part of town. Eden headed for the northeast, but with Corel being a fairly small town, he knew things wouldn't be so simple as a regular search. Soon after, he had his confirmation of that when he and Reno crossed paths, neither having found anything. The blond Turk stopped his search before getting to the far southeast end, going back to a middle ground and leaning on a home wall as he thought about everything he knew about small towns like Resembool and Youswell. While staring off into space in thought, he saw Reno pass by again, then turn back to join him with a scowl on his face.

"Ya know, since you were the one who commented 'bout 'old-fashioned elbow grease', ya'd think you'd be puttin' more 'elbow grease' in, yo," Reno glared.

"Have you ever lived in a small town like this?" he asked the older teen.

"No. What does _that_ have ta do with anythin'?"

"We're not finding anything because we're thinking like city people, not farmers and miners."

"...What?"

"Small-town folks don't think the same way as city folks. I'm just trying to get back into that mind-set."

"That mind...You're from a small town, yo?"

"Originally. One-room schoolhouse, doctor's office in his house, that sort of thing. Cellars...Hidden cellars to keep wild animals out of the goods..."

Eden suddenly pushed away from the wall and walked around the mainly dirt area of one house, scanning the ground, then moved to the next, and the next. They were near the outer edge of town when the blond stopped, crouched, and slid his fingers into a crack in the ground under the edge of a weed.

"What the—?" Reno blinked, gaping at the crouched Turk.

"Hey, Ed! What're you doing?" the black man, Barret, asked as he and a slightly paler woman walked up, frowning thoughtfully at the two Turks.

"Hey—it was Barret, right?" Eden asked, looking up at the two.

Barret and the woman traded looks, then the man nodded and said, "This is Myrna, a friend of mine and Dyne's. What's up?"

"Nice to meet you, Myrna. Do you store coal in here, or food, or both, and how often do you check it?" Eden asked of the pair.

"Don't see why it matters to you," the man answered, frown deepening a bit.

"Hold on—this has something to do with Illis, doesn't it?" Myrna asked suddenly, and Eden nodded. "Some food and things like lantern oil were stored there, some of the replacement tools for mining, things like that. Most of the coal doesn't get stored, it goes on the carts to Costa del Sol to be shipped elsewhere. We check them about once every six months, other than the one we're actively using at the time, and there are four around town. We're using the West Store right now, then we would use the North one, then this one, and all of them were checked about three months ago."

Eden let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes as Reno said, "Shit."

"At least we know Fuhito's only been in the area for a month or less. That won't stop him from doing something stupid. Our problem is that we have to check three of them in a hurry, and he can't know before we go in or we're screwed," Eden said, standing up and pulling out his PHS as he walked away from the cellar. Reno went after him with a frown and Barret and Myrna followed them.

It didn't take Tseng long to answer with, "What have you got for me, Eden?"

"We need Balto and Maur here to help us with the town cellars—there's a damned good chance he's hiding in one of the three they only check every six months. Also, there's just as much chance Illis was kidnapped by him because she got too close to his hiding place. We don't know where she did or didn't already search here, but since she's from Corel and probably knew where all the cellars were, she had probably searched one or two before trying to contact you for help—and her message got cut off before it said anything useful," Eden explained quickly and softly. He was sure Reno heard him, because he gave a nod, but the other two didn't show any reaction.

"Got it. Maur was already heading in that direction, as he found a lead heading in Corel's direction—he should be there before morning. Balto will be able to make it by morning if I call him now. _Don't do anything_ until they get there unless Fuhito makes himself known before then!" Tseng ordered sharply.

"Yes, Sir!" Eden chuckled, then hung up.

He faced Reno and said, "Both of them should be here by morning. We should check the South Store right now, because it's probably empty and he wouldn't have wanted to hide out in a place where food was too hard to come by. Once both of them get here, if we've ruled out the South and West Stores, we'll have two each for the other two—safer odds against someone like him."

"Fine..." Reno pouted—then suddenly grinned. "I'll call 'em up, get their locations, and pick 'em up in the chopper, yo!" With that plan in mind, the red haired man bolted for the outskirts where he'd left the Turks' chopper, even as Eden gave his retreating form a wryly amused look.

"Well, he'll make things faster that way," Eden shrugged, then looked at Barret and Myrna. "I'm sorry you're getting caught up in our terrorist hunt, but we need to stop him before he hurts more innocent people. If the townspeople have weapons—even just pitchforks or mining picks—please tell them to carry something on them at all times until we or Scarlet have given the 'all-clear'. There's no telling what Fuhito will do or when, since he's already blown up the Gongaga Reactor. If you think you're in serious danger, flee town quickly and set up a perimeter around it."

After a moment of shock, Barret said, "We'll do that, then." The two ran off.

 **Notes:**

(1) I know she doesn't laugh like this normally. She's trying to keep her more irritating and disturbing tendencies under wraps while negotiating so she doesn't insult or scare the villagers away too soon.

Okay, now for the notes I referred to at the start of the chapter:

One point is about the classified discussions taking place on cell phones: the elite of Shinra (Turks, SOLDIERs, the top executives) basically use PHS's with the original Blackberry programming—it can't be hacked or tracked, except by someone who has the codes. In this case, Reeve had them, but conveniently lost them, and the Turks only have them because Veld got them from Reeve when they were both much younger. That doesn't mean some actual hacking, generally through the switchboard mainframe, isn't needed with newer models. When Rufus got caught, though, it was mainly because of his 'other' cell phone, which wasn't one of Reeve's encrypted design, and he doesn't know about this system yet, anyway—he thought the encrypted one he'd originally been given was the dangerous one to talk on when it had actually been the safer one.

I want to clarify the level of technology they have on the Planet, too—it's actually operating in a very ass-backwards way (besides the fact that Wutai doesn't even HAVE any outside making some of their weapons into guns). On the one hand, they have holographic projectors, mecha-style robots, and advanced cell phones alongside swordplay and magic, and on the other hand, most of their technology is only about the kind you'd see in maybe the 70's or 80's, meaning it's not very functional in the way we're used to our technology working. They need massive mainframes to run things because they can't put 1tb in a space about one inch by two inches and thin, they can only put 250mb (maybe) in that same space. Most of their scientific equipment and vehicles look like stuff from the 50's or earlier, too, and while some of that may be 'aesthetic design', there's actually a good chance their 'average engineering' isn't as advanced as the weapons and devices Scarlet and Reeve design. And this is based on the main game as well as other things I know about the technology in BC and CC, which in some cases show more advanced technology with less advanced technology in a similar breakdown to the above-noted points.

The technology Reeve put into Cait Sith is a minor miracle and decades beyond the average technology of the world, but it's also technology President Shinra and most of the executives are COMPLETELY IGNORING—they don't think it could be useful or important. I think part of that is because they effectively associate Cait Sith with being Reeve's kid, not a capable spy and communication device. That's why Reeve has to keep it as self-contained units which he works on in his private time, and only his rank lets him do so with some of Shinra's technology and resources, though he has to pay for those out of his own pocket. This is part of the reason he's run so ragged, too—because he has things he needs to do for Shinra, and he has 'private projects' he also HAS to work on for the people's benefit and isn't justified in doing on Shinra's time and income, leaving him very little time for anything else. Add in his own personal projects for himself, like Cait Sith, and he pretty much doesn't have time to sleep.


	66. 64-Assault on Corel

Assault on Corel

It didn't take long for Eden to find the other three village Stores, quickly checking the South and West ones. Both were empty of people, though the South one was also empty of goods and the West one was showing regular use. By the time he was done his search, it was sunset and nearing dusk, so he headed back to Scarlet's temporary residence in the town. As he approached, one of the guards knocked on the door, and she opened it soon after, seeing Eden only about five steps away.

"Come in," she said to the Turk, so he followed her back inside. She turned and sat on the arm of the couch, asking, "What do you have to report?"

"We know Illis was kidnapped by someone, and there's a good chance it was by Fuhito. In the interests of trying to recover her and stop him, I contacted Tseng to get backup, and Reno has gone to pick them up in the chopper. We're down to two locations here in town where Fuhito may be, as those are the only places he could both safely hide and have ready access to food. By morning, we'll be raiding both locations to take him out and hopefully recover our missing agent. In the event that he puts up a fight or has been up to some experiments which prove dangerous, I've passed on to the townspeople to carry weapons on them and to leave town immediately if there's trouble. They have orders to set up an armed perimeter in that event. Their orders hold until one of the Turks or you yourself give them the all-clear," the blond teen answered.

"I see. How did you find him so quickly?"

"This is a small town, and there's really nowhere for him to hide. Thinking from a city-dweller's perspective creates a conspiracy which doesn't exist, but I'm originally from a small community similar to Corel, so I switched back to small-town mentality and remembered a very obvious place he could have made use of. There are four such locations around the town for storage purposes, one of which is empty and one of which is in active use, leaving only the two community cellars which are only checked twice a year. Those are the two we're targeting, since he'll be in one of the two—there's nowhere else he'll be able to hide here." (1)

"...Well...I certainly wouldn't have thought of such a thing. Storage cellars for community goods...Yes, I see. I'm surprised someone so capable came out of such a small place."

"Don't about half the Turks come from little nowhere towns?"

The blond woman chuckled (it still sounded like that awful 'kya ha ha' laugh, but more short-lived and less grating) and gave a small nod as she said, "There is that, I suppose. Fine, prepare for your operation. I'll keep my gun close tonight until you return to give me the results of it."

"That's a good idea, since he's an unpredictable element and might actually get out of control or try to attack you directly once he knows he's been found out. We'll do what we can to contain and end him, obviously, but—even the best-laid plans don't normally survive first contact with the enemy," he told her, and she nodded.

"Go on, then. I'm sure you have preparations to make."

Eden gave her a small bow, then walked out of the house so he could head back in the direction of the inn. It was nearly fully dark by then, and he heard the sound of a chopper, so looked up to watch as the machine flew overhead, heading south. While a chopper was fast and convenient, it could still only travel so fast, and it would probably take a few hours to get back. Until then, Eden was on his own and couldn't risk stirring the pot too soon or he—and the whole town—would be at a huge disadvantage.

Time passed slowly as he sat on the step of the inn to wait for Reno to get back, even as townspeople began heading home and to bed. He noticed pretty much all of them had some kind of bladed farming tool on them, though the ones who didn't obviously have tools probably had things like butcher and steak knives. The thought made him shudder as he recalled the criminal called 'The Butcher' in Central, but shook the thought aside. He didn't think many people would be getting sleep that night.

About an hour and a half later, he turned out to be right as an explosion sounded from the direction of Scarlet's residence. Shoving himself to his feet, he turned to run in that direction, shouting to the people coming to their doors as he went, "Get everyone out of town and set up a perimeter!" They hurried to gather their families and leave town as fire began spreading from home to home.

Soon, he got to the residence to see Scarlet and Fuhito holding guns pointed at the other while a ring of very strange people like zombies by the way they jolted and lurched circled them. She had her hair down and was bare-foot, but otherwise was dressed and unharmed, and just as he'd assessed that, they shot at each other.

In slow motion, he saw Scarlet fall to the ground with a laser wound to the head, even as Fuhito hit the ground nearer the burning house.

His first thought was to try his Life spell on her, but apparently, healing and life spells didn't work on laser wounds, and Fuhito's was the only weapon of that kind he'd seen before. As soon as he realized it wasn't going to work, he put his hands together and sent out the stone spikes he used so frequently to spear the dozen or so 'zombies'—only to find most of them crouched on the slanted spikes near the tips. Only three were actually killed.

"Shit..." he sighed, then drew his sword and braced himself for attack as the other nine lurched at him.

The impact of the first was so strong he was sent flying backwards and only barely kept his feet, making him frown and call, "Carbuncle, looks like I'll need some extra defense in this fight!" He blinked momentarily at the small creature which appeared, as it somewhat resembled a mixed cat, rabbit, fox, and squirrel and was in a color like pale turquoise with a red gem on its forehead. However, even as he felt its protective energy flow over him, he was struck by the next 'zombie', so turned his attention to the fight.

In the process, he assessed the things he was fighting and came to the conclusion that it was some sort of experiment done on humans to shut down their humanity and make them fighting machines. The only problem was that it pretty much shut down their mental functions as well, and caused movement issues as a result—things he was sure Fuhito would try to remove from the finished product. (2) As things stood, no one was going to stop them except him, and a breeze had sprung up due to the fire itself, causing the fire to spread to most of the buildings. He managed to behead one, and stabbed a second through the heart, only to find the latter not stopping it from moving, from trying to attack.

That was a bad sign. It seemed they were maybe more towards the 'dead' end than he'd originally thought.

A glance at the bodies showed him Scarlet laying where she'd fallen (and her body had recently caught fire)—but Fuhito was gone. His heart almost stopped before he turned and bolted to the nearest Store, the East one, and was about to throw the door open when he looked past the house nearest it—

And saw Fuhito with Illis draped over his shoulder, the ear on the opposite side of his head obviously damaged and bleeding. Fuhito's creations were slowly moving in his direction, but he had no time to worry about that right then. Crouching, he pulled his dagger from his boot and rose as he grabbed it by the point and took a moment to aim it before throwing it at Fuhito's retreating back. It struck the shoulder opposite the one he was carrying Illis on, causing him to stumble with a shocked, pained cry—

To his and Fuhito's surprise, Illis reached up and seized the dagger, pulling it free and using it to stab him a few times in the lower back until he dropped her and bolted. She laid still on the ground where she'd fallen, and it was obvious by her condition that she'd been tortured. She was probably in the early stages of one of Fuhito's experiments, for that matter, but it didn't change the damage she'd taken. Eden couldn't follow the man because Illis needed his help and the 'zombies' were still coming, but he _did_ run to the lady Turk's side and cast Full Cure (3) on her, something he could only do because he could access the arrays regardless with the lack of Reactor.

"Eden..." she whispered. "The Ravens...stop the Ravens..."

"The what?" he asked with a small frown, checking her belly to find it still bleeding, though slowed considerably.

"His...experiments...mindless killing...machines..." Illis got out.

"I can't just leave you in the middle of a burning town," he glared.

"You have to..." she answered as she gripped his wrist and squeezed, then started struggling to push herself up.

"Don't get up!" he glared, gently pushing her back to the ground.

Her dark eyes moved up to his, tired and pained, as she said, "You're a Turk...first. You have a...responsibility. I'm...a Turk. I always knew...I'd die eventually...and...I'm not afraid...of death. Eden...you _must_...stop the Ravens."

He paused, then glanced sharply at the approaching 'zombies', which he now knew were called Ravens, and sighed. "Don't die while I'm fighting them," he ordered her, and she gave a small smile, so he pushed himself to his feet and drew his sword again as he moved to meet them before they got too close to Illis.

At that moment, just before he would have engaged them in battle, he remembered Freyra saying purple illusion stones often conjured weather-related effects. Right then, he needed more power than he had to fight those things and to stop the fire from burning them all to a crisp. Thinking back to how Ramuh and Slyph were set up, he reached out to 'tap' the sword and the stones in much the way he would the Materia—and his whole blade lit up, even as it crackled with white lightning which was clearly different, very different, from any Bolt spell. The white lightning was burning the Ravens as it paralyzed them while overhead, clouds began forming, carrying with them cool wind and the smell of moisture—it was overpowering the self-made weather of the firestorm raging across the town and spreading to the surrounding forest.

His fight against the Ravens was still hard, even with Carbuncle's defense and the lightning flowing around his blade, and he mainly had to fight by jumping around to avoid their attacks and the fire while getting hits in while he could. Sometimes one tried to leave the group, but he would always target that one if it happened. Every one of them had to be beheaded, and they had better defensive capabilities than most people trained in combat had, so it was really hard to break through their guard to land _any_ blow, let alone a killing blow. He was down to six by the time the clouds in the sky opened up and poured down rain, and he swore he heard a chopper in the distance. The prolonged battle and the energy he had to expend to try to avoid the Ravens was wearing him out, so he couldn't risk the energy drain of calling a Summon which may not be able to kill them for him—he had doubts of even Odin being able to.

It was all taking too long for Illis. At the same time, she was right and he couldn't leave the Ravens to run rampant, so he mentally scanned through his Materia again as he tried to decide what to do. His dagger was in Illis' hand, so he couldn't use Gravity—and there was no guarantee Demi spells would work, or work properly, on Ravens any more than they had been guaranteed to work on Deepground. At least the rain was heavy enough to force the fires under control and begin putting them out...

He suddenly remembered having Aerial Attack slotted and wondered if that would be able to give him some free hits, so activated Jump as he jumped at one of the six. The blow connected and cleaved the Raven's skull in two. The remaining five launched themselves at him—only for one to slam into the ground on his belly, two to be shoved backwards by a foot and the flat of a blade, and the last two Revens' heads came off cleanly. Looking up as he panted, Eden saw Balto as the katana-wielding Turk dragged his slender blade across the neck of the man he'd landed on, then turned to face the remaining two.

A look towards the sky showed Reno struggling to land the chopper as a big man with brown hair jumped out and ran to Illis. The man looked twenty-five-ish and had tanned skin with a bit of a scraggly beard, and he had a fairly large build more like Rude's. He supposed the man was Maur, who he hadn't met yet. The brown haired Turk carefully lifted Illis and turned back to the chopper.

As his gaze moved back to Balto, the man clearly already had the idea to behead the Ravens, as he dodged right under one's guard to take his head off, then skipped back outside the other's range. His movement quickly took him behind the last so he could attack from the back, but the Raven was able to turn fast enough to parry and they exchanged several blows before Eden jumped to attack the Raven from behind. When it turned to block the blond Turk's blade, Balto took advantage to behead it.

"All right, Eden?" Balto asked as he sheathed his blade.

"...Yeah. Illis needs hospital care, though," the blond Turk answered, turning to watch as Maur was able to get into the hold with Illis.

"Then let's get out of here," the swordsman said, turning towards the chopper as well, not realizing the full extent of the situation they'd been left with.

"Let him take her back with Reno. We have to clean up here before we just ditch them."

"Won't Scarlet do that?"

"She's dead. That was Fuhito's opening salvo."

"...Shit."

Sighing, Eden pulled out his PHS, hoping it was waterproof, and dialed Tseng's number. The man said with a yawn, "This better be good, Eden..."

"Depends on your definition of 'good'. Even with Reno using the chopper to pick up Maur and Balto, they got back here too late and Fuhito launched an attack on Scarlet directly. He killed her and was damaged in turn, but he somehow survived. The town has been severely damaged by fire thanks to the explosion he set off, and when he realized someone was fighting off his creations, he ditched the battle and tried to make off with Illis. I stopped him, but his creations were proving—troublesome to fight, and there was no choice but to fight them, so I couldn't take care of her. Balto joined me in the battle and Maur got her to the helicopter. Assuming she survives the trip back to Midgar, she needs care immediately, unless there's a closer place where she can get proper care," Eden explained tiredly, still panting a bit.

"...Eden..." the man on the other end began with a heart-felt sigh. "Was she...being used in his experiments?"

"I don't know. Probably. I know the Materia you left in my care couldn't stop the bleeding."

"...How did you make Full Cure work when that one needed to grow before it would be able to be cast?"

"No Reactor."

"...That's...useful. But if she's in such bad condition, she won't make it as far as here. I'll send them to Costa del Sol and have some of our doctors meet them there. You and Balto will have to stay there until the President sends a replacement for Scarlet as Shinra's business representative."

"Understood," the teen agreed, then hung up and sheathed his blade. Eden saw Reno answer his PHS through the window. "We're staying here, Balto," the blond Turk said, making the black haired man turn to look at him and nod. Soon after, Reno took off with just Maur and Illis on board, the brown haired man pulling the hold door shut as he realized they were leaving.

"Where did the storm come from?" the older man asked as he reached out a hand to steady Eden as the teen swayed.

"Ama no Murakumo," Eden answered.

"...Your sword conjured a storm of its own accord?" Balto asked with a raised brow.

"No. It has purple illusion stones in it, and I deliberately tapped into them the way I do Materia while thinking about needing to put out the fires before they fried us, and the next thing I knew, it was creating lightning—not the Bolt spell—along my blade and the clouds started forming overhead. Freyra had mentioned to me not long ago that purple illusion stones tend to manipulate weather and weather effects, so..."

"I see. Yes, I could see that, especially in a time of great need," the man agreed.

Eden turned to scan the ground around where Illis had fallen, then sighed and said, "Shit. She took my dagger with her..."

"Your dagger?"

"Heartseeker, a dagger Genesis had specially-crafted for me. I threw it at Fuhito when I was trying to keep him from walking away with Illis. She grabbed it and stabbed him a few times with it, but probably didn't hit anything fatal."

"You'll get it back, I'm sure."

"Probably. Did you see from the chopper if the villagers had gathered anywhere?"

"To the south side."

"We'd better go see to them, then."

"...See to them how?" the man asked as they began walking in the direction of the south side of town. "The town is a mess, the homes burnt down, the well tainted by ash, and Gongaga—the nearest place capable of sending them goods—devastated by the Reactor explosion and rebuilding, themselves. It'll be a trick and a half for Costa del Sol to get them any supplies, and that would easily take two or three days to get here. There aren't even tents for anyone to use."

"But they still have their Stores—the caches of food and other goods to keep the town functioning—and most of the trees growing around the town can still be used," Eden answered, shaking his head. "Some of the wood from the buildings can be salvaged, as well. Whatever Fuhito left behind might be useful...and maybe there is still someone who can help us."

"Someone who can help us?" Balto asked in surprise as Eden stopped and pulled out his PHS again.

Before leaving Cosmo Canyon, Eden had gotten Elder Bugenhagen's PHS number, as the aged man was one of the few who had one which he intended on passing on to Nanaki later on. Right then, there was a good chance the most and best help they'd be able to get would be from Cosmo Canyon, just for the simple fact that the canyon town was over mostly easy land to travel, despite the distance. Also, those would have been the people Elfé would have mobilized first with his warning before he left Midgar. As such, he dialed the number and held the PHS to his ear again.

A sleepy, aged voice asked after several rings, "Hello? Who's calling me so late at night?"

"Elder Bugenhagen, it's Edward," he said, and Balto's eyes widened.

"Oh?" The man was silent for several moments, but when he next spoke, he sounded much more awake. "What's the matter, Edward?" In the background, he heard Nanaki's voice ask in shock, 'The Sentinel?'

"We seem to have run into a problem. Unfortunately, Fuhito just fire-blasted Corel and killed Scarlet, leaving the town in disrepair and the people without homes, nor the means to rebuild. Not long ago, Fuhito blew up the Reactor at Gongaga, leaving them in little better shape than here, and both villages with too little between them to help each other. The mountain passes through Mount Corel to Costa del Sol weren't made to transport building materials, leaving you as the next most likely place to be able to help both towns out—and there should be some people there ready to move on short notice. The question is, are you willing and able to help the towns, Elder?"

"It seems you have indeed run into a situation," the elderly man agreed in a musing tone. "Why don't you use your alchemy to help them?"

"I plan to, but it's not a 'god-like' power, Bugenhagen. I need materials to work with, and I can only salvage so much from ashes, even if I completely rewrite the carbon to any other form—I can't recreate the burnt wood, or the burnt anything else."

"I see...You do realize most of the men and women who would be providing the goods and services are from AVALANCHE, who you denounced, yes?"

"Doesn't matter. They're from Cosmo Canyon, and that's good enough. Corel has some of its Stores remaining, so food isn't the thing they're short on right now, assuming there isn't a drought in the area they get their food supplies from. I'm pretty sure the storm stopped the fires before they burnt many of the trees and fields nearby."

"...The storm...in a desert...?"

"Yeah...I sort of inherited a pair of purple illusion stones from a pair of Jokers and got together the goods to make them into a sword. My sword called up a rainstorm in the middle of the desert."

Bugenhagen began laughing at that, his 'oh, ho, ho!' rather more cheerful than the topic of discussion warranted. "Well, you certainly are full of surprises, Edward! I believe we'll be able to spare the people to find some resources for the towns, and to get those goods to Gongaga and Corel. Will we meet you in either town?"

"Corel. And it's actually Eden now."

"Eden? Why did they call you...?"

"You'd have to ask Veld, who has since retired. Either way, thanks, Elder."

"Of course. It may take us a day or two to actively reach both towns, so you may want to use your alchemy to create a single, large structure where the people can sleep at night, and we'll be able to make further arrangements later, once we know just how much of what is needed."

"Great, thanks—I'll do that if possible. We'll be seeing you in a day or two, then."

He hung up the phone and Balto asked, "Does he know you're a Turk?"

"Yes. He knew that before I headed back to Midgar with Rude, Tseng, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal," the blond teen replied dryly.

"And he's still willing to send us help?"

"He's sending it more to the people of Gongaga and Corel than he is to 'us'. How bad is Gongaga compared to this?"

"About the same, except that the debris was most of what damaged the town and killed people, so some homes were left completely untouched. They also have ready access to wood, but in their current condition, they don't especially have the will to go chop down trees to rebuild. They haven't even been collecting their foodstuffs as usual. I did what I could for them while looking for Fuhito, and they had started coming out of their stupor at least, but..."

"They need the help, too," Eden nodded. "The Elder suggested setting up one large shelter they can use overnight, but we can't do anything until the rain stops. Let's go find the townspeople."

"...How will you do that?" Balto asked with a frown.

"There's an ability I have which is a—variant of manipulating the Materia arrays, so it's very useful when unusual things are needed."

"Really? That might be more useful than not, assuming it's possible to do by the time the rain stops. This way."

They headed south, the direction the Corel villagers had gathered in.

 **Notes:**

(1) In Before Crisis, AVALANCHE was hiding out both in the town (with Dyne's help, apparently) and in caves in the mountains between Costa and Corel (circa 2002-3), where Shinra wants to build the Reactor. This time, Fuhito is both there much sooner and without AVALANCHE, so it was easiest for him to appropriate a cellar with a food supply to set up a temporary lab, since that would spare him the trouble of trying to smooth floors and walls and other basics like that.

(2) These are primitive forms of the Ravens, what they would probably have been like before the first time they were encountered in Before Crisis—probably 1-2 years before the point where they turned up in BC. The biggest differences are that they aren't yet 'sentient' or fluid in motion—but still plenty deadly.

(3) Full Cure in my story fully restores health and casts Esuna (which will also remove most status effects) because that's what a 'Full Cure' is to me, but it's not working here because the damage isn't purely physical combat damage—she has some cellular damage because of Fuhito's experiments. The original Full Cure only fully restores health. Remember how none of the healing spells worked on Genesis' and Angeal's degredation because it was cellular in nature (the cells themselves were dead, so healing couldn't take)? This is the kind of damage Illis has, though not the same reason or cause (that is: Not Jenova!).


	67. 65-Burdens

Burdens

The night was rough for all of the people in Corel because of the rain pouring down on them, but at least the fires were out by the time it had stopped. In addition, with the heavy rain, the surrounding desert had grown into a veritable jungle overnight, bursting with life, greenery, flowers, and trees. By the time the rain stopped around midday, everyone had gotten to eat the berries off some of the newly-grown plants (1) and the Stores were able to stay closed so they didn't get water in them. Some water had begun to form pools on the surface of the desert by then, but by evening, even that had been sucked into the ground. Overhead, the clouds hung through the day and into the next night as there was no wind to push them elsewhere, so the heat of the day never reached them.

By evening, it was still far too wet for Ed to safely create one structure with what wood and sand was left in the village (if there _was_ enough wood left), but Balto was surprised by how well the villagers took his direction. The blond had a surprisingly good rapport with them, something normally only someone from the village could have—and when compared to how well the people at Cosmo Canyon took him, it was nothing short of miraculous. Balto recalled a discussion he'd had with Reno after the Deepground raid and some of the oddities the younger Turk had noticed about 'Eden'.

The teen in question had found an isolated place near the burnt-out village to sit and stare at the destruction blankly when Balto sat down on the opposite side of the rock. For a few minutes, they sat in silence, until the older Turk said, "You're an outsider."

Eden snorted and replied, "Your point is?"

"...Everyone seems to like you, treat you like a long-time friend or a fellow villager, not like an outsider. People in Corel and Cosmo Canyon tend to be insular, but for some reason, they're letting you in. Why? And where are you actually _from_?"

"It didn't matter to Veld or Tseng, so why does it to you?"

"That's another point which puzzles me—they should have cared more."

"I think what I could do for them trumped where I may or may not have been from."

"As though I wasn't already suspicious..."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so there's no point. As for people letting me in—I'm not their enemy, I'm not a power-holder, and I'm not so self-centered I don't listen to them or care about their problems. I've traveled a lot, so I learned a lot about how people react to things. What they see from me is a real person, not a front made to look good, a real person who won't just cast them aside. If you—someone from a small town—can't see that, you've got a problem."

"Isn't that manipulative?"

"If being myself is manipulative, then so is existing. And on that token, if there's something wrong with being manipulative, why are you a Turk?"

Balto had no response to that since both were good points, so just sighed and looked away, out into the newly-grown jungle.

A few minutes later, the blond teen sighed and rose, saying quietly, "If you have concerns about me, take them to Tseng. The only thing I can say is that, if you're still suspicious of me after everything I've done, I'll tell him not to make us work together again." He stepped past Balto and headed back towards where the villagers were gathered.

"Why would you go that far?" the other man asked, sounding alarmed as he jumped to his feet to follow the younger blond.

"...If you thought I was wrong to take the actions I was taking...you'd let me get hurt or die because you don't trust me to start with." While Ed had never personally been betrayed by someone he _trusted_ or was supposed to be able to trust (unless he counted Tucker with Nina or the whole thing with the Amestrian military commanders who followed Father), he knew of others who had been, and he was no fool—suspicion or a lack of caring about others were the primary reasons behind betrayal. And Turks generally also had no issue with letting someone die.

First, Balto drew in a sharp breath, then pursed his lips as he jumped forward to catch Eden's wrist and swing the boy around to face him. With his free hand, he caught the blond's chin and forced him to look up and meet his eyes, taking a moment to read the feeling in them, seeing hurt, pain, and even some fear. He had to think fast to determine why the teen would think that about another Turk—and only one thing came to mind.

"Did Veld or Tseng ever tell you Turks are family to one another?" he asked the younger Turk, who he was really only now seeing as a human boy not so different from any other one. Eden blinked in surprise, and Balto's eyes narrowed. "I'm guessing that's a 'no'. Then, let me explain something to you. Even if I don't trust you, or don't agree with your actions, I could _never_ justify letting you be hurt or killed if there was anything I could do to stop it. You already treat us like that, doing everything you can for all of us—too many of the others swear by you, not just Tseng and Rude, not even just other Turks, and I watched you fight to protect Illis yesterday. Whatever you're doing isn't for malicious intent, however incorrect I may feel you are to take such an action. Regardless, you're my _brother_ , and I won't just leave you. No Turk will. We don't betray our own." (2)

Eden's eyes widened, and before either of them realized it had happened, a few tears rolled down the sixteen-year-old's cheeks. As he was lifting his hands to brush them away, Balto sighed and pulled him into a one-armed hug, causing the younger man to stiffen in shock for a moment before relaxing and dropping his hands back to his sides. While they stood together, Eden leaned against the older man, who stared off into the distance as he thought hard about what he knew of the whole situation.

Finally, a few minutes later, the teen pushed back from him as he reached up to run his hands over his face, so Balto let him go. "Feeling better?" he asked the younger Turk, who gave a nod and a small 'yeah'. At the answer, the black haired man said, "I don't believe Veld and Tseng should have been so careless where your origins are concerned, but as I also said, I don't believe your actions have a malicious motive. It only just occurred to me now how much of a burden you've been carrying, because for some reason, everyone is looking to you to miraculously fix everything."

"What are you talking about?" the blond frowned in puzzled confusion as the man's blue eyes met his gold.

"When we raided Deepground, you were given the hardest part, and Tseng's reasoning was based on something as intangible and unreliable as 'luck'. Only a Turk several ranks above yours should have been given a mission like that. I could see Reno being sent on it, but he's been a Turk for almost three years and has a great deal of experience in getting into places he really shouldn't be. Tseng put the burden on you, and you never even batted an eye at it, even though that same mission nearly _did_ kill you." At that point, Balto paused, watching golden eyes blink in even greater confusion, then the teen began to open his mouth.

Before Eden could speak, the black haired man went on, "I could understand you being sent to look for Fuhito, but you should have been sent with a partner, also because there was the chance of Fuhito killing or kidnapping you due to your history with him, a history I'm still not clear on. And, you should never have been sent to Scarlet's watch—new Turks have trouble dealing with her and not getting into trouble, regardless of age or gender. When things went south, Tseng expected you to pick up the slack, even though you'd had a hard fight while trying to protect a fellow Turk who had been tortured—he never even asked how _you_ were, did he?"

When Eden slowly shook his head, eyes wide, the man went on again, "You were given charge of the area, and immediately took up the burden of commissioning supplies and offering to extend your own skills to see that everyone else had shelter. As much as I appreciate your connections—that burden should never have been yours. I—"

"But it needed to be done!" Eden cut in with a glare. "It still needs to be done, and as it stands, it'll be morning before I can make them a general building to sleep in, which is two days later than they need it, and—"

"Eden!" Balto cut him off sharply, earning silence and a sharp glare. "Yes, those things need to be done. But _not_ by _you_."

"But I can—"

"Eden, who made you think you have to save everyone from themselves, or from circumstance?"

That time, the blond's only answer was a wide-eyed stare.

"Tell me, exactly when are you just relaxing and enjoying life, rather than trying to save everyone? These are small-town people and are fully capable of rebuilding their lives themselves, with their own two hands—if you're from a small town yourself, you already _know_ that. Why are you trying to do it all for them, instead of taking care of yourself, mentally and emotionally?"

After a moment, the younger Turk lifted a shaking hand to his head as he gave an oddly helpless sort of laugh. When Balto rested a hand on his shoulder, the teen said softly, "For you, Rude, and Genesis to all pretty much say the same thing to me, I guess there really is a problem..."

"And what was it they actually said to you?"

"That I'm never taking the time to enjoy life, to enjoy living...no matter what I'm doing or looking at, I'm not seeing the beauty of it, I'm calculating something or seeing how I can use it. And they asked me when I stopped calculating and started living."

"Well, now I'm giving you something new to think about, because now I'm adding the element of the burdens you're carrying to it as well. It's not up to you to fix the world, but for some reason, you take on that burden, even when you don't actually _need_ to. Instead of the burden, live your own life and let people fix things themselves. You staring at the burnt-out town should have been a warning sign to me, actually. At your age, you should have gone with the youths of the village to explore the new growth, not stayed around here and lamented what you weren't able to do."

For a minute, the sixteen-year-old was quiet, but then he lifted his shoulders in a motion which almost could have been taken as a shrug. "Because I could do so much, because I was able to fix a whole city in a day, it was always just expected that I do so. I don't mind doing it, helping people...It's a lot less materials they have to spend money on and a lot less time they have to take fixing it or waiting for it to be fixed—the right way. I never saw it as a burden because...I've been doing it since I was, like, four."

"...You've been fixing people's homes since you were four?" the man repeated, completely stunned.

"Um...mostly, it was things like broken dishes and tools back then. And I made the toys we played with as little kids. As I got older, the things I made or fixed got bigger and bigger, and more and more complex. The bridge between here and Gongaga is one I made with that skill because Rude and I had to pass somehow going there and by the time we were coming back, that one had washed out, so Rude, Vant, and I needed another bridge to come back."

"...I had vaguely wondered when Reeve had managed to send competent engineers to rebuild the bridge. I suppose now I know he didn't send any. And Eden, my response is the same—it's not your responsibility to rebuild Corel, and you're already carrying enough of a burden just helping to keep them organized."

The blond Turk looked up at the black haired man searchingly, but then his shoulders slumped and relaxed, the shift obvious under his hand. It was as though a figurative weight had been lifted off his shoulders. And maybe one had been.

"You won't think any less of me? They won't think any less?" Eden asked softly, and Balto was reminded oddly of a much younger child seeking approval from an adult like a parent or caregiver.

"The people of Corel don't even _know_ you could be doing anything more for them. You haven't been doing anything because right now the town is too much of a mess for you to touch. If the people from Cosmo Canyon can't understand that, they're much less honorable, understanding, and kind than I thought. As for me, I'm the one telling you it's not your responsibility. Why would I take you to task for something I legitimately feel you don't have to do? Night guard duty is more than enough."

At first, it seemed like the teen was going to say something, but then he stopped and gave a small nod. Somehow, both of them understood the depth of feeling being expressed in that one, small motion, and Eden smiled faintly in relief as the two turned to head back to the villagers. That time, they walked side-by-side, something they hadn't previously done because Balto had been so suspicious of him. He supposed he didn't deal well with suspicion because the majority of the people he'd met on Gaia had instinctively trusted him, and—wasn't that just another one of those really odd things? More people should have felt and reacted like Balto, though knowing the Turks wouldn't deliberately betray him was something, trust or not.

Family. Brothers and sisters...

The thought didn't cause him the kind of agony it would have even a month ago, didn't make him feel like he was betraying Al or Winry or the others he'd left behind in Amestris. Instead, it felt warm and comforting.

CA

Soon after they got back to the Corel villagers, two voices eagerly called, "Ed!" and two large mountain lions bolted through the nearby growth, bounded across the twenty feet or so of space between them and the blond Turk, and pounced on Eden. Everyone had been reaching for weapons until they heard the teen laugh as he reached up to hug them and they climbed on him like affectionate dogs, licking his face.

"Hey, come on, stop that, Deneh, Nanaki!" the laughing teen said to the pair, trying to sit up again as several humans came from the same direction as the mountain lions had. The group of men and women looked amused by the sight, and just waited patiently for the lions to calm down.

After several minutes, both had calmed down and let Eden sit up, their chins resting on his shoulders. Balto looked at the humans and asked, "Can I safely assume you came from Cosmo Canyon to lend a hand here?"

"Yeah. We got here faster because the Elder had the bright idea to have us follow those two through the less-used Canyon and mountain passes to here. It only half-worked because we're not quite as agile as they are," one man said. "Anyway, the first thing we have to do is see the damage and what you've got left, then see where we can get a new source of building materials."

"The water should have finally receded enough for them to access their Stores," Eden commented, looking around at the surprised villagers for the ones he knew. The first one he saw was Barret, so he called, "Barret, have you checked the state of things around the Stores in the last couple hours?"

"Yeah," the man answered, shaking off the shock. "Long as we're careful, we should be able to open 'em up. The packed dirt and sand in town is holdin' the water more than the loose sand in the forest and desert."

"That'll be a big help, especially if you're willing to lend a bit of food to Gongaga in exchange for building materials," the spokesperson for the Cosmo Canyon people said.

"Why're people from over at Cosmo Canyon here to start with?" Barret frowned.

"Because Ed—en called the Elder for help last night," the man from Cosmo Canyon answered dryly, producing several dropped jaws. He then looked over at the blond Turk and said, "I have a private message to give you, by the way. Once I've passed it on, I can go with someone from the town to see the Stores while everyone else has a look at what's left of the buildings and such."

Balto's brow rose and he looked down at Eden to ask, "What kind of private message would Elder Bugenhagen have to give you?"

"You're assuming a lot if you think it's from him," Eden replied dryly, patting Deneh's and Nanaki's heads again. "Can you two let me up, please?"

"But I was so comfortable!" Deneh complained, huffing as she sat back from him.

"I was, too! But I guess we'll have to check out the town, too—especially after all that rain," Nanaki sighed, also pushing himself back from Ed. Rather than just sitting back, he got up and headed in the direction of the town.

"Where did that storm come from, anyway?" Deneh asked as she rose to follow the other large cat. They were being followed by most of the other new arrivals from Cosmo Canyon.

Eden decided not to answer her as he rose and turned to the man who said he had a message for him, so the two moved away from the group of villagers. Balto moved over to talk with the Corel villagers, who were obviously still trying to wrap their brains around the arrival of help from Cosmo Canyon.

Meanwhile, the blond asked the man softly, "You're from AVALANCHE and the message is from Elfé or Shears, right?"

The man gave a soft snort and answered, "Yes, and Elfé. She says there's a situation in Wutai she needs someone to look into, and as far as anyone can tell, it's not to do with Shin-Ra other than the fact that Shin-Ra is after nearly anyone who could be considered a terrorist, in their lands or not. Since it's not directly related to AVALANCHE, she's not willing to ask our money bag, but what details she has on it are fairly sparse because she's not actively in Wutai right now. The people suffering most are the local villagers, and you're pretty much the only person she'll vouch for there who might be able to figure things out."

"I can't just drop everything and go right now, you know. I don't mind helping her, but that depends largely on whether or not I can get my boss to let me go out there for something legitimate for Shinra, otherwise I have missions to handle—one of those currently is hunting Fuhito, who is in this area."

Making a face, the man said, "Yeah, no one's forgotten what Neo Bahamut said to him, and we've been wondering since then what kind of person he really was. Is he the one who burnt down Corel?"

"And blew up the Gongaga Reactor, and tortured one of my co-workers, and killed Scarlet, and turned a bunch of people who had once been human into things sort of like mindless, walking dead...Do you really want me to go on?" Eden asked with a glare he directed at the nearby trees.

"I see...We'll keep an eye out for him and take him down, then, but there's no telling where he'll go next if he got away from here."

"Thanks. But yeah...Actually, do you think he'd go back to Wutai if he got found out here? If there's a good chance of that, I may just be able to get out there soon."

"That has potential, as he wouldn't know he's not wanted there right now."

"...The attack on Midgar?"

"The failed attack on Midgar. Not that it did nothing, because some good did come out of it, but the Emperor wasn't happy to lose so many of his people to something he didn't even approve or know about until the attack was underway."

"So there's a good chance he'll have no more support there than he does here, but if he doesn't know that, he'd try going back to his home territory for support after being found out here...I'll see what I can do. Tell Elfé I can't guarantee anything, but I'll probably get Rufus to contact her once I know if I can get out there. Right now, the only Shinra people here are Balto and myself, so we have to stay until someone comes to replace Scarlet."

"Fair enough. I'm going to head out and see how the Stores are set—Gongaga desperately needs some food because most of their Stores were destroyed. We'll work on supplementing both towns, but we really need the two to help each other out if this is really going to work."

"They'll be fine, especially since it looks like all these new plants are going to survive to become food-bearers," Eden answered with a quirky half-grin. "I guess the rainstorm had some benefits, too."

"Too true, and your luck is astounding," the man replied with a wry smile. He then gave a wave and headed over to the villagers, asking for a guide to the Stores, which Barret agreed to do.

Balto joined Ed and asked, "You won't tell me, will you?"

"No. Other than part about Fuhito, the rest I can't tell you."

"...Fuhito?"

"He stayed at Cosmo Canyon for two years or so, and I first met him there. That was also the place where Neo Bahamut denounced him and led to us having to hunt him down by showing his true colors. He hasn't turned up there since and won't be welcome if he does. In the meantime, they're planning to take him out if they find him, especially knowing the basics of what he did here and in Gongaga."

"I thought the people of Cosmo Canyon were pacifists?"

"Generally, but there's always some people in any group who like fighting. Or, I guess in the case of Cosmo Canyon's defensive force, they like protecting others, and Fuhito is dangerous to everyone, so..."

"...Okay, I do have to give you that. We'd better start our night guard patrols, though. It doesn't sound like many of the Cosmo Canyon people will be staying nearby."

"I didn't expect many of them to, but they also sent more people than I was expecting them to send. I'll start east this time."

They parted ways to begin the patrols for that night, and found three of the people from Cosmo Canyon joining them not long after.

CA

In the next several days, the members of AVALANCHE working on Cosmo Canyon's behalf were frequently in and out, exchanging materials and food supplies with Gongaga and finding ways to supplement what was available. They even managed to convince a few of the villagers from each town to cross over to the other to help with aspects of the rebuilding. No one said anything about Eden simply not producing a residence for the people in Corel, nor did they give him any 'looks', so he settled for just keeping up a guard patrol. They also didn't receive word from any of the Turks or from Shinra about the replacement for Scarlet, leaving both Eden and Balto at loose ends for the whole week, causing them to frequently seek out each other's quiet company.

The one thing it did was give the blond Turk time to study the 'fusion Materia' he'd picked up at the shop as well as a Mastered one, as he'd shoved the fused Materia in his pocket and slotted a Mastered All to make his quota. The Mastered All was actually very different in its internal structure from a regular All, mainly because—as far as he could tell—there was no further data to be added to it. While he knew there was 'empty space' in Materia which weren't Mastered, he had never been able to tell how much because they were too unstable. With the Mastered All, its amount of free space was delineated clearly and all the energy flows were stable, so he could see they had _a lot_ of free space once Mastered. That fact also supported the theory that he'd need Mastered Materia for his fusion project.

Speaking of, when he checked the Bolt Blade, he immediately found that its arrays were a mess. It was stuck on Bolt 2 tied so tightly to the Elemental effect that every other array had broken apart or become non-functional, and even many of the sub-arrays were missing from the make-up of it. It could literally only be used to activate Bolt Blade, and trying to use it any other way could turn it volatile. By what he'd seen of the fusion machine, it could only combine two (though he'd have to find out if it could only combine ones from different categories or ones from the same one), likely because of how much of the results' functionality arrays it destroyed.

He had to shake his head and wonder how the scientists of Gaia seemed to have so little knowledge and understanding of scientific method. He'd seen the writings of three who actually used it efficiently, and they were all dead to the best of his knowledge—Gast Faremis, Grimoire Valentine, and Lucrecia Crescent. Now that was truly a pity, because the other scientists' lack of capability, especially with scientific method, was probably one of the key factors destroying the world. His assessment at Shinra Manor had been correct...they _didn't_ know the difference between a product and a bi-product or a symbiont or a parasite...

 **Notes:**

(1) I know, in a normal environment, the trees and bushes couldn't already have been producing food. The explanation for this is in the next chapter.

(2) Don't ask me, but like Rude and Tseng, Balto just decided to take over and become a pretty prominent part of the story...Hope you don't mind how this develops! Again, there's ZERO romantic intent—this is all either bromance or just brotherly, depending on your definition of the terms. Also, Before Crisis has plenty of proof that Turks—even ones as devoted to the President as Veld—put the Turks' well-being before the President's or Company's.


	68. 66-Matter of Pride

**A/N:** **100 Favorites! Cyber cookies to Pisceskat, the 100th favorite registered, and cyber bonbons to everyone else who has followed or favorited, and to all the readers who haven't done either but are still enjoying the story! Also, thanks Pisceskat and ShadraRune for your help working out what Ed's gift from Reeve & Co. would be!  
**

Matter of Pride

On the eighth day after the AVALANCHE members (Balto still didn't know that detail, though) arrived in Corel, Eden was sitting on the edge of the well with Deneh beside him when his PHS rang. A look at the number showed him it was Tseng, so he answered with, "It's about time you got in touch with us, Tseng."

"There was nothing to report," Tseng answered dryly. "Now, as of last night and this morning, I've finally got some news for you. First, since I'm sure you've been worrying about Illis, she woke up very briefly two days ago, but fell back into a coma soon after. As of this morning, it looks like she's woken up and is staying awake. Most of her injuries are well on the way to recovery, and Shinra's doctors have been able to undo most of the experimental damage Fuhito had done to her. They're sure she'll make a full recovery. As that's the case and Fuhito seems to have left the area, I'm sending Reno to pick you and Balto up and return you to Midgar. Oh, and Illis told me to pass on a 'thank you' to you, as she probably wouldn't be alive right now without the healing you gave her when you did."

Before Eden could answer, Tseng drew in a deep breath and went on, "I was also told recently that the President has finally chosen Scarlet's replacement in Weapons Development, and has chosen someone else to take over the discussions and agreements with the Corel villagers. I'm not worried about the man replacing her, because he's the sort I thought he would be, and while the one being dispatched to Corel is also from Weapons, she's much more of a negotiator who is willing to make bargains. As soon as she gets there, along with supplies for rebuilding and securing the village, you're both free to leave with Reno. You'll be able to expect both her and Reno to arrive sometime later in the evening."

"Will Cosmo Canyon's help here and in Gongaga interfere with the supplies due to arrive?" the blond asked after a pause, still trying to sort through most of what Tseng had just told him.

"Hmm...I don't think so. If anything, it'll mean they have extra supplies, which is fine, since that will either go to the Reactor or to repair materials for later on. Sorry for leaving you hanging for so long, but we're a little short-staffed at the moment and I needed to keep an eye on happenings here in Midgar."

"What's been happening in Midgar?"

With a small sigh, the Wutain man answered, "So far, it's not gotten out of hand, so I won't go into details. Anyway, Genesis has been assigned to the case as well, so I need you to focus on finding Fuhito—especially since his murder of Scarlet put him at the top of Shinra's most-wanted list."

"There's a good chance he's gone back to Wutai after being flushed out from here, and Elfé was hoping I could get out there soon, anyway."

"I see. Well, I need your report on the situation there by the time you get back, so you may want to start working on it while you wait. Tell Balto to prepare his as well—I have Reno's, Maur's, and Illis' reports already, but yours will be the most comprehensive and the only real data we have on Scarlet's death and Corel's destruction. And Eden, thank you for picking up the slack out there. It was badly needed, especially if you've really managed to get both Gongaga and Corel extra help and they're already getting their lives back on track."

"It was needed," the teen replied automatically, and Deneh shoved herself up as she turned to look at him searchingly, letting him know she'd been able to hear the whole discussion. Well, she _was_ a 'cat' and had a much-enhanced sense of hearing.

For a moment, Tseng didn't answer, then said, "Regardless, thank you."

Before Eden could answer, the line went dead, so he hung up and asked Deneh, "What?"

"You should have said 'you're welcome'. Why didn't you say that? It was like you had to justify helping them...or like you don't know how to accept thanks you should have been given anyway. Why didn't you just say 'you're welcome'? Even, 'it's not a big deal' or 'it's no problem' would have been better things to answer with," she said, a worried expression in her eyes. "Those are what normal people would have said."

He met her gaze searchingly for a moment before asking, "Is it really all right that I haven't used alchemy to fix the town, or even produce the shelter Bugenhagen suggested I produce?"

It surprised him to see her gaze become sad. "Eden, we saw the state of the town from the fire and rain, and we know you need materials to work with. This is the first time I've seen you come into town all week, and you didn't look around it at all, just followed me down the main road to here. Just in that walk, did you actually _see_ anything you could have made more than a single plank of wood with?"

Slowly, the blond Turk looked up and around at the surroundings, looking at them for their materials instead of pretending nothing at all was there. He quickly found she was right, and there wasn't enough wood left in his immediate surroundings for more than a single building frame support post. Even most of the straight ash—which would have given him malleable carbon to work with—had mostly washed away and the blackened wood was in a half-way state he couldn't use for much. The sand was something he could have used, but if he started dragging the packed-down parts out of form, the town would sink into loose sand. On top of that, Corel was now surrounded almost completely by forest (all food-bearing, so he couldn't use them), leaving no loose sand anywhere nearby.

"...Is the whole town in this same state?" he asked with a small frown.

"There are a few homes on the outskirts where about a quarter of them is undamaged, but these homes are all decades old with wood so dry it's like kindling, and the houses were small. They were gutted almost as soon as the fire reached them. A building to house so many people would need more wood than there is in the whole town, and the only trees around here are food-bearers we can't afford to start cutting down until the new growth produces more fruit than a meal or two of berries. You were lucky to have gotten that much, and I really think you only did because the storm was magical and was carrying Lifestream energy in it."

"...Basically, I can't do anything, anyway..."

She watched him hunch over in something like defeat, then asked him, "Even if there had been enough materials, why did Elder Bugenhagen ask that of you in the first place? You have enough on your plate already, Sentinel. Stop adding burdens to the ones you've already taken on. People can rebuild their own lives, and you're already trying to save the whole world and the people living on it—something more important than doing something for them which they can do for themselves. Also, did you ever think that it's not healthy for them if you just come along and miraculously fix everything for them? Then they stop trying to do for themselves and turn into the same kinds of people you're fighting against, people who are apathetic and uncaring."

Eden blinked at her, struck suddenly by how much her words sounded like the ones Genesis and he had spoken to Rufus and Elfé when they'd found out about her life being drained by Zirconaide's fragment. Rufus had asked if they could skip straight to asking Minerva for help, and both of the 'alchemists' had said very simply that they had to make a concerted attempt to fix it themselves so they didn't become too dependent on her to fix everything for them. Genesis had also pointed out that they would never learn anything if they didn't do for themselves first. Added to that was how Eden himself had told Rufus not to just hand money to people in the Slums, but to give them work instead, work which would give them a hand up, rather than a mere hand out. Maybe fixing tools was better than doing the work for them...

Had he been looking at his abilities the wrong way the whole time he'd been growing up? He remembered Teacher fixing kids' toys by hand, not by using alchemy, no matter how easy the alchemy would have been. She'd said if she did that, the kids would never learn to cherish or take care of their toys. In Youswell, the miners and their wives hadn't wanted him to help with the mines, their jobs, their livelihoods, they had wanted him to fix tools and dishes so they could continue to make their own livelihoods. The thing they had most valued was having the town returned to their care rather than being under Yoki's tyrannical rule. Lior hadn't really wanted his help, either, even when they found they had to rebuild their lives after Father Cornello's lies. Civil war had engulfed them, but they had chosen to walk their paths on their own, and while they had appreciated some help, they hadn't wanted anyone fixing it all for them.

Was he taking away their pride by trying to do things for them which they could do for themselves, even if it took longer?

"Why the long face?" Balto asked as he joined them.

"...Is it taking away their pride if I do it for them?" Eden asked Deneh, sounding lost as he thought about that question over and over again.

She tipped her head to the side as Balto stared, then she asked, "Tell me, what would you think if you knew you could fix your home yourself and someone came along and waved a magic wand, making it all better for you when it wasn't actually needed or wanted? What would you think if you, as a skilled warrior, were shoved off the battlefield because someone stronger came along and took care of it all, when you could have done it yourself, even if it would have taken longer?"

The blond Turk opened his mouth, then closed it and looked away, holding his hand to head as he asked shakily, "Then what have I been doing this whole time?" (1)

Realizing what the discussion was about, the black haired man asked the female lion, "What started this?"

"He got a call from someone named Tseng. When the man thanked him for what he'd done here and for a woman called Illis, he apparently had to justify it rather than just accepting the thanks for itself," Deneh explained.

Balto sat down beside Eden and put an arm around the sixteen-year-old's shoulders as he said, "I'm sure this goes back to what you said about having essentially been made to fix things for people from the time you were four. There isn't anything wrong with wanting to help people, but you do seem to have a bad habit of not taking care of yourself in the process. Also, there's a line between helping them in ways they actually _need_ and helping them in ways they don't. As I said—you never _needed_ to rebuild the town, you just needed to help organize them and take up the night patrol, something they _aren't_ familiar with doing themselves. Does it hurt _your_ pride if you don't help in the rebuilding?"

"...I feel guilty, like I'm letting them down, if I don't do it," the teen replied quietly, shoulders trembling a bit.

"But pride isn't the issue?" When Eden shook his head, Balto answered, "Are you still 'letting them down' if stepping back lets them keep their pride in their own hard work?" Shocked gold met curious blue for a minute before the man added, "Or did you ever think about picking up a hammer and nailing in the boards with your own two hands as a means of 'helping' them?"

Again, Ed found himself remembering Izumi fixing the children's toys with her own hands, and his eyes widened in shock.

"How can someone with the skills of a Sentinel miss something so obvious?" Deneh asked softly, shaking her head sadly as she moved up to Ed to lean her chest against his legs and rest her chin in his lap.

Balto looked down at her and answered dryly, "No matter how skilled or capable he is, he's only sixteen, Deneh. He hasn't really had a long life and apparently missed most of his actual childhood, so I would be more surprised if he had no issues at all to deal with."

"I'm only thirteen," Deneh frowned, and Balto's brows rose.

Before the man could answer, Eden snorted and said, "But you've been alive for over forty years."

With faint amusement, the older Turk added, "In which case, your wisdom much trumps any human sixteen-year-old's, Deneh." He then rose and offered a hand to the younger Turk, asking, "Now, how about we go help the villagers with the house they're working on right now—with our own two hands?"

After a startled moment, the blond reached up to take the offered hand, and all three headed over to the most recent home being rebuilt to help hold or nail boards into place.

CA

By the time the woman sent to take over for Scarlet got there, the frame and walls of the house were up and Eden and Balto had taken a break, during which the blond filled the black haired man in on what Tseng had told him. The woman's arrival also had them dismissed from their posts, as she brought some Infantry to patrol and extra workers and engineers to help rebuild the town. She was impressed with what they had already done, congratulated the Turks on their resourcefulness, and heard from the Corel, Gongaga, and Cosmo Canyon representatives what kind of system they'd established.

She quickly came to the conclusion that it would be to Shinra's benefit if the materials she'd brought for Corel were split between Corel and Gongaga, as restoring the Reactor would reestablish the locally-produced power supply. As such, she did a calculation on what Corel still needed for their rebuilding and had the rest shipped to the other town with some of the engineers and workers she'd brought along, and informed the villagers that she was actually accounting for village walls in her calculations. The walls had manually-opening gates they could open from either side, but could only lock from the inside, so it clearly wasn't meant to keep them locked in, it was meant to keep monsters out and to make it harder for people like Fuhito to get in.

Once all of that had been worked out, she dismissed Eden and Balto to rest while they waited for their ride. Knowing they had reports to write up, the pair asked her to spare some paper, then found a place to sit and write before it got too dark. They both finished in under forty minutes, then just sat and waited for Reno. The chopper arrived soon after, as dusk was falling, so they rose to head for it—and stared in surprise when they saw Illis standing at the open back door, looking faintly amused by their expressions. They climbed in and she pulled the door shut, then knocked on the wall behind the seats against the cockpit wall, letting Reno know he could take off.

She sat as they took to the air, Eden and Balto across from her, and pulled Heartseeker from her pocket to toss it to the blond. He caught it with a grin as she said, "That's a very nice little blade. But what the Hell are Sylph and Carbuncle?"

"Good question..." Balto added in surprise as Eden snorted.

"Sylph sometimes appears in the Fort Condor Reactor leak, and is a wind-type Summon that drains the enemy to heal all your allies equally. Carbuncle—was in Deepground and is a shielding Summon which casts Reflect, Wall, Shield, and Haste on the target, and in favorable conditions for the target, it also casts Resist. It's how I survived against the Ravens for so long," the blond Turk said. The other two stared at him, so he shrugged and asked, "How are you recovering, Illis?"

With a small sigh, the woman said, "The doctors are sure I'll make a full recovery, and I'm not actually in danger anymore, but I also won't be going out on missions until I've been given the okay. I've been told that'll be about three weeks, so I'll be doing a lot of paperwork and helping out in the office until then. For now, even though I can walk—mostly thanks to the healing you gave me in Corel—I'm too tender to do anything more than that. What _did_ you heal me with to make it do what that one did?"

"Full Cure," the blond replied, and the black haired man beside him stared as the woman gave an impressed whistle.

"Where did you get one of those?" Balto asked with a small frown. "They're really rare, and the only one I know of is the one Veld passed on to Tseng."

"Yeah, that one produced a baby, and when I got out of the hospital after the raid on Deepground, Tseng handed the baby to me and sent me to Corel," Eden answered, then turned his gaze to Illis. "I think he somehow felt you needed more than even a Cure 3 could give you, but I don't think he expected it to actually be needed or that I'd be able to activate it without it being half-way to Mastered. It was sort of a whim on his part, but I've noticed just like I do with the people I care about, he can somehow sense something's really wrong with someone he cares about. On the other hand, he doesn't seem to be aware he's doing it, either."

"Yo, Eden!" Reno called from the cockpit. "Get over here and let me take a nap already!"

The blond snorted and called back, "What do you need a nap for, Reno?"

"Been goin' for almost forty-two hours straight now, yo. You can navigate and land, so gimme a break," the red haired man retorted.

"Since when can you fly a helicopter?" Illis asked as Eden rose.

"Ask Tseng. It was his idea to have Reno teach me how to pilot," Ed replied as he headed for the cockpit, not seeing the sharp look Balto shot him or Illis' confusion. He sat in the co-pilot's seat and slipped his dagger into place, tapped the box he'd left under the edge of the seat with his boot, then pulled on the headset and began operating the controls. "Forty-two hours?" he asked as Reno heaved a relieved sigh and began deactivating the main pilot's seat controls.

"Rude, Judet, and Quis can pilot, too, but all o' them are—busy. That left me as the only available pilot in this area, and there's been a lotta pick-ups and drop-offs, yo," the red haired man answered, finishing his shut-down and pulling his headset off so he could lean back and close his eyes. He was out cold seconds later.

Eden just gave his head a shake and focused on flying, checking the navigator's map to make sure he was still going in the right direction.

CA

When they finally got back to Midgar and he'd safely landed the chopper on the Shinra building's landing pad, he reached over to shake Reno awake—and found him remaining deeply asleep. After a minute while he finished shutting down the helicopter controls—as much as he knew how, which mainly just meant it was powered down but ready for take-off on a moment's notice—he pulled out his PHS and dialed Tseng's number.

"What is it, Eden?" the man asked, sounding tired.

"Reno's out cold. Do I have to try to wake him up, or can I leave him here?" he asked dryly, and heard Tseng sigh.

"For now, let him sleep," the man answered, then hung up.

"Coming, Eden?" Balto asked from the door to the cockpit.

"Yeah," the teen answered, hanging up and reaching down to grab his Materia box before getting up and heading back to the hold. Illis was already standing on the landing platform waiting for them, and once the two men had joined her, the three walked inside together at a pace Illis could handle.

It didn't take them long to get to Tseng's office, but they were a bit surprised when Emma and Ruluf, the only two Turks in the main office, gave Illis hugs on the way to their destination. Like the last time Eden had been to the office, Tseng was standing at the open office door by the time the three got to it, his eyes scanning all of them critically.

"Good to see you recovering, Illis," the Wutain man told her, reaching out to grip her shoulder. "You won't have to worry about running out of things to do here while you're recovering, since I can really use the help."

She looked a little amused at the words, saying, "I never thought I'd run out of things to do in an office this busy in the first place, Tseng. But, I would like to sit down if you don't mind."

They moved into the office, and she dropped into the seat nearest the door while Eden and Balto pulled out the reports they'd written and handed them to him. He took them with a nod and moved to his own seat as Eden stayed standing at the desk, his hip leaning on it, and Balto moved over to the wall of shelves to lean on it.

"All right, give me your report on Fuhito, Eden," Tseng said, looking up at the blond.

"Besides what he did to Illis, I know he blew up the house Scarlet had been staying in and created some—undead things Illis said are called Ravens. I think the 'blowing up' part happened after either he or the Ravens had attacked Scarlet, because I got there in time to see that she was unharmed and they were pointing guns at each other. In the next moment, they shot each other—and apparently Fuhito's laser gun does damage spells don't heal. Not easily, anyway. I'd thought they'd killed each other when they both fell, but I had to take on the Ravens, and it was only while I was fighting them that I realized he wasn't dead because his body was gone. My first thought was that he was going to grab some of his stuff from the village cellar he'd been using as a hiding place—I took an inventory of that one on one of the days—but all he'd grabbed was Illis."

The blond teen paused for a moment, then sighed and said, "He knows he's blocked out of pretty much every place in Shinra territory with what he's done, so there's a good chance he'll retreat to Wutai to look for support. Whether he gets it or not, he'll be safer there than here because of the war taking place on their soil, so he'll probably stay there to work on the Ravens more. Tseng, you've seen some of my actual skill level, and the Ravens are bad news. It was really hard to get through their defenses, and the only way to kill them with any speed or certainty was by beheading them. Even my stone spikes they were more likely to slide off of than to be impaled by, and if he's trying to perfect their movement ability to go with their strength and agility—I can safely say they trump Deepground."

Heaving a deep sigh, the man nodded and said, "Fine. You'll have to head out to Wutai, so go grab a change of clothes and grab something for Reno to eat. You need to get there and track him down before he gets too estab—"

"No," Balto suddenly cut in, and Tseng turned to look at him with a frown.

"No?" the Wutain asked in a low, dangerous tone.

The older Turk straightened and faced him directly to say, "No, you're not sending him out again after he just got back, and no, you're not sending him after Fuhito alone, not when he knows Eden's the one who interfered with him in Corel."

 **Notes:**

Yes, I left this at a cliffie. Shoot me.

(1) First, no, he's not crying, just emotional and confused (since a few readers think I have him cry too much).

And yes, Edward Elric is completely screwed up this way, partly because of the completely unrealistic application of 'Equivalent Exchange' to 'life', which absolutely DOES NOT WORK, and partly because of how he grew up. While he knows you can't give people hand-outs and expect them to have better lives, he doesn't actually KNOW what constitutes a hand-out outside giving them cash. He's also got a pretty big guilt complex, and has been forced to fix things for people too many times (many of these showed up directly in the series, and while I have nothing against him doing some of it, a lot of people expected him to fix whole city blocks), even things which weren't his to fix. This combination of factors results in one of his biggest character flaws, and it's about time it got addressed. And hopefully fixed, though the 'fixed' part will take time.

Of course, if left to his own devices, I don't think Ed would have fixed so many things (Paninya should have been the one to fix the damage in Rush Valley!), but he still would have fixed quite a few of them, so this is sort of making him aware that he _can_ just bow out because not everyone wants/needs his help.


	69. 67-Oversight Apparent

**A/N:** Keep in mind that Tseng is only (recently) 20 now (still very young in comparison) and was given command of the Turks 4 years sooner than in the actual timeline, so he has a lot to learn. Don't be too hard on him.

Oversight Apparent

The office had gone silent as Tseng and Balto stared at each other, the younger of the pair with his lips pressed into a fine line and the older of the pair determined. Illis was watching them quietly, and Eden was staring down at the edge of the desk, his bangs having fallen forward to mostly cover his face. Emma and Ruluf had slipped quietly into the room at the prolonged silence, standing at the door and wondering what was going on—but knowing not to interfere at that point, as it was obvious Tseng and Balto were in the middle of a staring match.

"Balto, I don't actually believe that's your decision to make," Tseng said at last.

In response, the older man stepped forward and slammed his hands down on the desk as he asked, "You don't get it, do you? What is he, a tool? Is that why neither you nor Veld ever managed to remember to tell him Turks are family? We _all_ got that speech—but somehow, _he didn't_? Were you so wrapped up in what he could do for you that it never once occurred to you just how many burdens he's carrying, or that he needs to rest— _really rest_ , not be harassed in the hospital—just like any other human being? Valuing skills is one thing, but you're not 'valuing' him—you're treating him like garbage. Do you realize your oversight could have caused—" the man broke off suddenly, spinning away to punch one of the shelves beside him.

While Tseng could have interjected something at that point, he remained silent, waiting for Balto to finish what he was saying. After a silence, Balto turned back to him and said, "How many times have Turks disagreed in the past? You never gave him the understanding that disagreements and suspicion wouldn't lead to deliberate harm, Tseng, and almost shoved a wedge between us so deep it may not have been able to be repaired! If we hadn't been the ones left in Corel, giving us that time to talk and get to know each other more, you could never have sent us on missions together without causing us both mental damage."

He gave his head a shake and added, "And have you really _looked_ at him since we got back, or did you just see what you wanted to see—that he was fine? You're not even giving him a day to sleep in his own room. He's been working non-stop for us even before he joined us, but the only break he gets is if he's in the hospital? No, Tseng, things can't keep going that way."

There was a pause, then Tseng leaned back in his seat, crossed his legs at the knee, and linked his fingers, resting them on his crossed knees. "Is there anything else you want to say before I answer you?"

The older man almost snarled, but proved he had a lot more to say. "You gave him guard duty on Rufus Shinra—that's probably the _only_ logical thing you've had him do in the whole time you've known him! If you needed more pilots, you should have asked the rest of us if any of us wanted to learn, not ordered Reno to teach him without even giving him a choice—all you've done is given him one more burden. Your reason for sending Eden as deep as you did into Deepground was his sheer luck, but you were sending a raw rookie into something a Leader-rank Turk by our new system should have been doing because 'luck' is unpredictable at best! You almost got him killed! Every time something happens, you let the rest of us have some degree of choice, but asking around—you've never given it to him. He's strangely used to obeying orders, don't you think? (1) Did you even _notice that_ little oddity, or did you just use it to your advantage?"

Pausing to run his hands through his hair, Balto then went on, "I know the Turks have come out of some pretty strange backgrounds, but you haven't got any damned clue about his, and you don't seem to _care_. That lack of caring just makes me think even more that all you're really seeing is a tool. It's not just him, either—Vant and Kariya are being treated the same way. The worst part about it is that Veld and you have both done it, just shoving more and more on them...On him.

"And Tseng, I'm serious. He knows Fuhito saw him in Corel, saw him fighting his Ravens, knows he's the one who saved Illis. They have a history, and Fuhito has a personal vendetta now—do you want to have a repeat of what happened with Commander Rhapsodos and Deepground, only with Eden and Fuhito instead? You should know better than to send a Turk on a mission like that alone, unless you were setting up a sting, which you're not! In fact, you and Veld have both taken appropriate actions with every other Turk, so why are you tossing that care and caution aside _now_?" The older man finished with a huff and a deep intake of breath, then fell silent.

"Are you finished now?" Tseng asked quietly, his gaze and tone oddly sad. Balto's only response was to cross his arms and wait, so Tseng looked around at the others, seeing Illis' even gaze, Eden's trembling shoulders and downward gaze, and the two stunned additions at the door. Facing the black haired woman first, he asked, "Illis, do you have anything to add?"

She paused, then said, "I think there's a lot you and Veld never actually got around to telling him, and after what Fuhito did to me, I'm in agreement with Balto that you can't send Eden alone. It doesn't matter how capable he is, you can't take that risk. Unless you _want_ him to die, that is."

Tseng's eyes shut for a moment before he looked at the two Turks at the door and asked, "Emma, Ruluf?"

The two traded looks, then Emma said, "I don't know him well, but there does seem to be...parts missing. Freyra's a better one to ask, but from some of our discussions, I think you're being strangely careless with Eden, and far too lenient."

Ruluf gave a small nod and said, "There aren't many people I'm afraid to have as an enemy, and he's one of them, but at the same time—he's only sixteen, no matter how skilled and capable he is. When was the last time you saw him as human, let alone a near-child, Tseng, whether it was you or Veld?"

The words produced a small sigh before he looked at Eden, who was tightly clutching the Materia box in one hand, and asked, "What about you, Eden? Am I asking too much of you?"

After a long silence, during which Tseng's eyes squeezed shut in pain and realization, Eden finally answered, "I don't...know how to judge that."

The others all looked at him, and Tseng slowly echoed, "You don't know how?"

Wounded golden eyes lifted to meet his as the boy said, "Balto asked me why I thought I had to fix everything for everyone, even things they could fix themselves, even if it would take longer. The arrays...I've been able to use them, make them work to fix things, since I was four. I could read and understand anything, any book put in my hands, no matter how complex, and I could take it and _use_ it. From that point on, everyone brought everything to me to fix, and half the time, they didn't give me a choice. (2) I got used to doing it, even when I protested having to, so...I can't tell anymore." There was hurt in his gaze, and under it, betrayal.

"I see..." Tseng sighed slowly. "So that's why you never said anything about it, and I never realized that might mean something other than that you were fine. Veld—I can't speak for him because he had pretty much killed his emotions and there really wasn't a way to tell if he knew and ignored it or, like me, figured you'd say something if you needed a break or couldn't handle something. Normally, by your usual personality, I'd have thought you'd just say it if something was bothering you, but...Balto doesn't even know the extent of your burdens and saw something I should have seen myself."

The words made Eden look down again, so Tseng rose and stepped around his desk to tip the younger Turk's face up with a finger under his chin. Their eyes met and the twenty-year-old said, "I'm sorry for my oversight, and for the other things I now know I also missed. I never intended to hurt you the way I have, or to hurt any of the others that way. Even over-work isn't an excuse for some of the things I've missed. The only thing I can really think of to have caused me to miss so much is that you were always so self-sufficient it never occurred to me that I had to worry about you. After everything that's happened here, what you've heard from the others, I can safely say you've lost some, if not all, of the trust you had in me, so...Can you tell me honestly if you can even still handle being a Turk, especially under my command?"

Eden pulled away like he'd been burned and turned to the far wall, moving up to it so he could lift his arm to lean the forearm on it high enough to then rest his forehead on the raised arm. The box in his other hand was being clutched so tightly it was trembling and swaying a bit. Since he just seemed to be more confused, angry, and betrayed than anything, it seemed best to let him sort his thoughts rather than try to demand an answer.

Since Tseng wasn't going to get an answer right away, he turned to look at Balto with a small sigh as he said, "Balto, while Eden's thinking about how to answer, I'd like to explain something. In the case of Kariya, he has _asked_ to go on every mission he's been sent on, his conditions his own choice—not one of those had to do with either myself or Veld deliberately sending him out under unfavorable conditions. If he thinks he needs help, he says so, but as much as I'm not sure he's completely trustworthy, he has never failed to accurately judge for himself what help he will or won't need."

The Wutain man then lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "In Vant's case, he's actually an animated corpse being kept alive by Hojo's and Doctor Crescent's experiments. He can't be killed by our definition of the words, and any injuries he'll get are negligible—his regenerative abilities trump Sephiroth's, Genesis', and Angeal's. What hits he takes do a tiny fraction of the damage they would to anyone living, and even a prolonged battle doesn't wind him—the most it'll do is start slowing down his reaction speed marginally. He doesn't get muscle exhaustion in the way we do and doesn't need to eat or sleep. He's also _choosing_ his missions, and makes sure the terms are his own. Since he's actually one of Veld's former contemporaries and a former Turk, I saw no issue in letting him do whatever he wanted.

"In fact, Eden is the only one of those three you have valid concerns about, and as bitter a pill as that is, it's also one which _needed_ to be brought to my attention," Tseng finished. He then shocked all of the others by giving a small bow to Balto and saying, "Thank you."

There was a pause before Balto pointed out, "There's still a lot about Eden which you haven't answered."

Tseng's gaze moved to the teen's back as he asked, "How much do you think they should know about exactly what's going on here?"

After a pause and a sigh, Eden turned back to face the room, leaning his back against the wall as he looked up at Balto, his emotional state significantly calmer. "When Fuhito split from AVALANCHE, he remained an enemy and AVALANCHE became unintentional allies. They've actively helped us out before, like with Deepground while they were kidnapping people from the Slums and in other cases. Because I was guarding Rufus and wouldn't give him the luxury of leaving me behind, I got in with them through him, as well. The two remaining leaders of AVALANCHE are still on a good rapport with the Wutain government because they're allies to them. In the case of Wutai—I have a free ticket no other Turk has."

"Meaning?" Balto asked warily.

"He means AVALANCHE will give him passage to walk around freely in Wutai for an investigation, an advantage no other Turk has," Tseng answered quietly. (3)

"Also, Elfé has asked that I investigate something for them and the Wutain government," Eden told the Wutain man. "If I'm right, there are two people who _might_ be able to go there with me—Genesis and Argento—er, Sora. You're out because of your own past, one Sora obviously never had, and your position here. As for Genesis, he's as friendly with Elfé as I am, and she'd probably grant him passage, too. It would also give the two of us time to work on some projects, but all of that is assuming you can afford to not have his help here. And if both are on missions, I have no choice but to go alone."

A silence followed the blond's statement, then Tseng asked, "Does that mean you're staying with us, Eden?"

Eden shrugged and answered, "I seem to have ended up in an oddly protective family. I was always the one who had to do the protecting in the past, so everyone else's protectiveness of me is—puzzling. (4) At the same time, I'm not really willing to give that up, either, and seriously...What do you think I would have to do to myself if I couldn't give you another chance? That would be really hypocritical of me, you know?"

The black haired man paused for a minute, then gave a small nod and a sigh. "I suppose there's some truth to that." His gaze met the other teen's and he asked, "How urgent do you think Elfé's request is?"

"I don't know, but if she was going through other members, probably not so urgent there'll be a mass slaughter tomorrow if I don't get out there."

"I'll check with Sora and Genesis. As much as I don't think they could really leave you alone out there, especially if you're investigating a case for them at the same time, there's no guarantee the person they leave you with will be able to help you, and even her word won't completely stop their suspicion. In the meantime, take a few days to rest. I'll need to do the same with Reno, just because he's really had no break as a pilot for the last two weeks."

"Um..."

"Yes?"

"I think I forgot my room number."

"...Oh, dear..."

Somehow, a moment after Tseng gave Eden that answer, the others were chuckling and the man actually blushed a bit as he rubbed the back of his head. The employee cards didn't have the room numbers on them, so there was nowhere Eden could check for himself to find out. It _did_ tell him the sixteen-year-old really hadn't been spending enough time there, which in turn gave more credibility to Balto's concerns. Running back over all his discussions with the teen, he also realized how much had never come up before, which also made him question himself on why they had never discussed those things due to him deliberately bringing them up.

After a moment, the Wutain man moved over to one of the filing cabinets and found a folder, which he began flipping through. Soon after, he had the number and said, "Fine, Illis, if you don't mind, could you just stay here and take messages for me? If you really get bored and want something to do, the stack of paperwork on the right side of the desk needs to be filed. The rest of you can finish up what you were doing and go rest, or just go right to resting in Balto's case. I'll show Eden back to his room and make sure we cover all the things Veld and I seem to have missed before."

With agreement from the others, Tseng took Eden's elbow and led him from the office. They went up to floor fifty-eight and stopped at a door just around the corner—there weren't many other doors down the hall. (5) Sure enough, Eden's card opened the door to room fifty-eight-oh-six, so the two stepped inside—and for the first time, the blond teen was able to look around it for more than five seconds.

He found that it had a main room with two couches, two chairs, and a coffee table, a furnished kitchen/dining room with a plain, round table and three chairs, a guest bathroom with only a toilet and sink, a storage and laundry room (though staff apparently checked the Turks' apartments for dirty clothes every day, too), and a fairly large bedroom with a full en-suite bathroom. Most of the colors were clinical white, grays, and black, though there were brown and green offsets on the floors and baseboards. To one side of the living room was a set of balcony doors, so he also stepped outside onto the balcony. The space was about five feet wide—much wider than the average balcony, which was usually only three feet wide, and about twelve long, most of it following the wall of his living room.

When he came back inside from his exploration, there was sorrow in Tseng's eyes, making him blink. "We really never gave you even enough time to look around your own apartment here," the man sighed when he saw Eden's expression.

Rather than answer him right away, Ed moved over to the couch next to the wall and flopped down on it, surprised to find it quite comfortable. From his position laying on the couch, he commented, "I haven't had a home since I was eleven. I traveled, stayed at inns, stayed at friendly villagers' homes, slept on whatever my mode of transportation was at the time, or even just slept in alleys and abandoned buildings. That last was pretty rare...I usually had a roof over my head, and there was no place I called 'home'. To be honest, this—having this apartment to always come back to—is really strange to me after five years without, so I didn't even think about it. Then everyone was saying I should rest in my own room, and for me it was like, 'I have one of those? Oh, right, I think I remember Veld telling me that.' It didn't mean any more than that to me."

After staring at the boy in something like shocked horror for a minute, the man moved over to sit in the chair by the blond's head. "So, my reason for showing you here, to explain to you all the things Veld and I missed completely before. The first thing is the fact that this is your home. Balto apparently gave you the 'Turks are family' speech, and I'm grateful to him for that, but I have to reiterate it. I think I may have been—discouraged in mentioning that after your story about what happened to your brother, and you left me with the impression you weren't ready to hear that you had a new family, one which trumped everything else. Everything else we...I...missed really had no reason, but that...If I had told you back in Costa del Sol that Turks are family and your fellow Turks are more important to you than your birth family, what would you have replied with? I doubt it would have been beneficial to us."

"No, probably not," Eden agreed quietly. "I've finally come to the realization that they're all gone. However, whyever, it happened, they're gone and I can't get them back. And even though Turks are responsible for doing some really nasty things, I still really like being here, being with everyone. It's like...it was always up to me to protect everyone, even old Granny Pinako or whoever...No one was ever there to protect _me_. The Turks are the first ones who have, whether it was Rude, or Freyra, or Balto..."

"...But I never have," Tseng finished quietly.

The blond teen looked up at him, propping himself up on his elbows to consider the shadow in the Wutain's eyes. "I'm not sure that's exactly it, either," he said, and the older man met his gaze quietly. "You haven't been 'protective', but that doesn't mean you haven't protected me, or tried to protect me. I just really don't think you view me as family, and you sure as Hell don't treat me like a younger brother."

The man's lips twitched at that before he sighed and said, "No, I don't. That doesn't excuse my lapses in judgment where you're concerned. And speaking of, we should get back to the topic at hand. I think one of our rare moments of clarity was when Veld gave you this room, because it's just down the hall from the Turks' library. We only have a small number of rooms on this floor, and all the rest are on the floor below this. Left to your own devices, I have no doubt you'll wind up in the library of your own accord."

Eden chuckled and laid his head back down on the couch. "You'd be right. What else did you miss about the things I needed to know about being a Turk?"

That began a discussion of about three hours, which they interrupted only once when Tseng told Eden to check the fridge for drinks. Sure enough, they were there, a few different types in cans, which the two drank for part of the discussion. Otherwise, the teen began to feel like he had when he was given the list of State Alchemists' Protocol.

CA

The next day, no one was expecting him anywhere, so he got up leisurely and got cleaned up and changed at a much more relaxed pace than he usually would have. With his hair still wet and hanging down freely, he stepped out onto the balcony to stare out at the view. Unlike the hospital room, this one had fog, but he was above the fog level, and he could see all the way to the mountains in the distance, letting him know the direction they were in was south. It was a breathtaking view, if only the pollution fog wasn't hanging over part of it. Not to mention the hole in the city which was being fixed, and which was just visible from his room. He put his hair up out there when it dried.

From there, he decided to take his time and look around the building, earning a few curious looks from people as he went, but no one stopped him or asked him what he was doing. On the way, he actually met one of Reeve's Cait Siths and the two got caught up, Eden being careful not to start petting the cat-robot while they talked using the unit as the middleman. When he got to the Academy floors, he found the kids he knew—Shelke, Shalua, Elena, Anthony, and a thirteen-year-old girl who he vaguely remembered was one of the experiments they'd freed. He watched them train in their combat and Materia classes, and even gave some pointers to the class as a whole.

Shelke was pleased to see him wearing the Ribbon, but gave him a worried look as she asked what he'd done with Heartseeker—and he showed her the blade in his boot and the Materia he kept on it. She was surprised by his thought to keep a hidden weapon, but when he explained his trump card to her, the girl began to understand what he had done and why he'd done it. When he told her the dagger had saved one of his fellow Turks, Shelke swore she'd pass word on to her brother.

When he finally finished with the trip down to the bottom floor, he left the Shinra building to find a place to eat—there were several restaurants and cafes near it—and quickly returned back to the building to start his verification trip back up.

 **Notes (Sorry for the length for anyone who reads these!):**

(1) Despite often trying to get around Mustang's orders (which Mustang always accounted for him doing, so it wasn't really effective), he still had to follow basic orders—go there, apprehend this person, etc. How he went about it, and therefore the result, were often things Ed did differently from his actual orders, but often, he still obeyed the order regardless, and he DOES associate the Turks with his former title as Major Elric. As such, when he's given an order, yes, he obeys, just not necessarily 'to rule'.

(2) I don't 'know' that the people in Resembool did a lot of this in that sense, but it's sort of an impression I get from things like—why in the world were Ed and Al even out at the river when it was about to flood in the FIRST place? They should have been where Pinako and Winry were, by all rights, and shouldn't have even been thinking about trying to fix the dike holding the water back.

(3) Yes, Tseng knows this, as it would have been one of the things Eden told him during their long discussion in the hospital after the Deepground raid.

(4) As much as Ed probably knows the adults in Amestris helped him at times, I don't think he realizes just how much, especially since they had to work around his lack of willingness to accept help (or thought they did). Part of that came from feeling like he had to be strong for Al and couldn't show 'weakness' to anyone, but part of it is from his own strength. The only real differences now are that he doesn't have to worry about Al and the adults aren't giving him a choice in the matter, so he has to face it. Whether he accepts or deals with the help the Amestrian adults gave him is debatable.

Most of his changes are directly due to him no longer being on familiar ground, so all of his habits and patterns have gotten shaken up.

(5) This might be a little different from when I mentioned his room earlier in the story because I hadn't yet mapped out the area so I knew where to place a missing room for another story (may or may not ever be published here). Now, I have a map of both floors where the Turks have their rooms and their library, and the location has 'moved' because of how the map turned out. This floor plan mainly also applies to the SOLDIER floors and to the Turks' office floor, with some minor changes for what certain parts of the design are like. In the meantime, I don't really have a place to put the maps so people can see them or a way to scan them currently, so...

The floors were technically designed with a hall going around a central section, with an outer set of apartments, the hall, another set of apartments, and a kind of greenhouse/garden section in the middle. Since Eden's on the outside section of apartments to see the city, the library door is on the other side of the hall, and he's only just around the corner from the elevator. There are only between a quarter and a third the number of apartments on the upper floor of the two, plus the garden, and the rest is the Turks' Library.

Also, the Turks' office floor has a modified set of halls which allow for many more decent-sized offices than there are apartments, but with a whole lot more space on the inside, most of which is unaccounted-for because it's where their command center is as well as they hide their files. The hall is closed (as in, there isn't one where there would be on most other floors) along most of its designated space, and the second-in-command's office is right on the corner of the closed section so it has a window as well as the entrance to the command center. The main office is the one right at the elevator, and the Director's office has the entrance to their hidden file storage space and a few soundproofed rooms and other hidden living spaces—not many, though.

Hope this makes sense!


	70. 68-SOLDIER Cadets

SOLDIER Cadets

Before long, he'd gotten back up to the forty-ninth floor, where something caught his eye in one of the training rooms—the test for new SOLDIER Cadets (and possibly Turk Trainees) was going on right then. Except, there was a dark haired, thirteen-year-old girl leaning against one wall, staring at a familiar, spiky-haired, blond fourteen-year-old. When he moved his gaze to the blond, he noted the younger blond had cut off his ponytail and was somewhat better with a sword than most of the other wannabes, and was definitely better with magic, but the Sergeants didn't seem interested in him. Also, was Eden just imagining things, or was the younger blond actually _reducing_ his skill level?

As he was debating leaving or intervening, a hand gripped his arm, making him look down into Tifa's wide, brown eyes. "Ed? What—you're a Turk? Since when?" she asked quietly so as not to disturb the sparring matches, but she was still clearly very shocked.

He rubbed the back of his head and admitted, "I'm actually sixteen, but I had suppressed my memory after—a traumatic experience. I've been a Turk since about a week after I left Nibelheim, but they backdated it to around my second week there, when I had passed on to them some valuable information. What are you and Cloud doing here—besides the fact that he's trying out for SOLDIER?"

"Well...You know, he idolizes General Sephiroth, and he'd originally thought he should wait until spring, but at the last minute he decided to head north just before the first storm came in. We were just lucky the storms held off for so long. I followed him because—I'm just tired of it. I know my dad loves me and all, but no one, not even him, respects me or cares what I have to say. Cloud is better at that, so I just..."

"Wandered off without telling anyone?" Eden asked in amusement.

"...Well, yes. Then we came here when some SOLDIERs and Infantrymen were returning. I didn't know there were any women SOLDIERs, but the woman in charge was wearing the Firsts' black uniform and everyone really respected her," Tifa explained with a grin.

"You mean Sora Kagawa?" Eden asked in mild surprise. "You were at Rocket Town, then?"

"Yeah, and we managed to get through the pass just before the storm hit. Thanks, by the way. I don't think we'd have made it to Rocket Town if you hadn't sparred with us to help us learn what fighting is really like," the girl told him, resting a hand on his shoulder for a moment. "I'm just glad we didn't meet a Dragon!"

The blond looked back over at the younger boy, watching him closely for several minutes—and realized it was true and Cloud was falling short on the practices he'd had with him. He was just literally not fighting seriously. "Damn. Is he lowering his own skill level because of his opponent's skill level?" he suddenly muttered, striding forward towards Cloud and swinging his fist.

Cloud yelped and dodged to the side before the blow hit, causing Eden's fist to strike the flat of his blade—and the fourteen-year-old's jaw dropped as he gasped, "Ed? You're a Turk?"

Raising a brow, the older teen asked, "What the Hell are you doing, Cloud? If you really want to be in SOLDIER, start showing your real skills, the same ones you used when we sparred in Nibelheim. Because if you keep up the way you have been, you won't make the cut, and I _know_ you're more skilled than that."

By then, everyone in the room was staring at them in shock, and even some awe, but both blonds completely ignored them. Cloud straightened and said, "But then I'll hurt them."

Eden gave a snort and asked, "And what did you think SOLDIER _was_?"

"...Um..."

"Forget hurting people, Cloud, it means _killing_ them. Why that matters to you after all the fights you used to get into, I can't fathom. It doesn't change the fact that hurting them here will probably mean they won't get killed somewhere else. Now, are you going to do this properly, or do I have to give you some incentive?" He heard a few faint chuckles by the door, but ignored them in favor of keeping his attention on Cloud, who had focused wholly on him as well, a ponderous frown on his face.

That ponderous frown was normally bad news—but Cloud raised the basic SOLDIER practice sword and answered, "At least I _know_ I won't hurt you."

He then shot at Eden, and the Turk responded by swinging his hands to send Cloud flying in a mid-air cartwheel. When the fourteen-year-old came down on his feet and immediately shot back at Eden, he knew the younger blond had been practicing—the monsters they'd fought on the way to Rocket Town? Either way, Cloud had gotten stronger, and Eden actually had to resort to drawing his own blade to fight him. It even took him about fifteen minutes rather than five to lay the other teen flat, and he was breathing a little harder by then.

"Well, you've gotten better. Fighting real monsters sure seems to have helped you," Eden commented, offering a hand to the younger blond, who took it to let the Turk pull him up as he got his breathing back under control.

"Damn it, Ed, why haven't you sent any letters back?" the younger teen pouted. "I got tired of Mom moping and worrying after you left—seriously, I told you she pretty much adopted you."

Holding a hand to his face as he heard Genesis giving an amused laugh behind him, Eden groaned and said, "Cloud, this isn't exactly the time or the place to discuss that..."

"Really? Then when _will_ we discuss it again?" Cloud reached forward and pulled Eden's hand down by the wrist, causing molten gold to meet brilliant blue. "Yeah, you're probably busy as a Turk, but you could have sent a message any time. That's why I got tired of it all and left."

An arm landed around Eden's shoulder as Genesis asked impishly, "Friend of yours, Eden?"

Cloud blinked at the man several times as Eden gave a heartfelt sigh, then the younger's eyes widened and he asked incredulously, "Commander Rhapsodos? You're friends with Commander Rhapsodos?"

"Cloud, I'm a Turk. I know almost all the big-wigs in Shinra," the older blond answered dryly, then asked Genesis, "Who else came in here with you? I'm good, but I don't have x-ray vision to see through your arm or the back of my head."

Genesis chuckled and answered, "Sora and Sephiroth. She came to get us to see how your friend was doing. I'm sort of glad you got involved, because what he started out showing wasn't anything like Sora described him doing outside Rocket Town when he and his traveling companion got mobbed by monsters."

Eden lifted his shoulders in a shrug as he said, "Fine, meet Cloud Strife, the son of the family I stayed with in Nibelheim."

"Oh? The one who helped you fight all the monsters in Mount Nibel and Shinra Manor? Dorky Faces are tough, so you were already doing pretty well in that case," Genesis said as he looked at Cloud.

"How do you—?" the younger blond asked in surprise.

"I'm the one who kept calling him then," Genesis smirked.

Cloud flushed and heaved a sigh. "Great. Eden, then. How much of what you said was true?"

"Most of it, based on the memories I actually had available at the time," the older blond answered dryly. "I had suppressed some of my memories—about six years of them. They didn't come back until after I had left Nibelheim. And I wasn't being called Eden then because I hadn't been hired yet, just scouted. The guy waiting for me in Cosmo Canyon was a Turk, too."

"Oh. Does that mean you sort of scouted me, but I wasn't good enough for SOLDIER then?" Cloud asked with a small frown.

"I'd have needed all my memories to scout you, but our sparring practice sure paid off," Eden replied in a dry tone.

Genesis straightened up and gave a nod. "Now that we've seen your _real_ level of skill, we know it's worth putting you in the Cadet program. If you can keep up in that, you'll easily be a Third. You've got the general skills of a Third bordering promotion to Second, actually, and you just need mission experience and Mako enhancements to make it further." Genesis paused then looked at Eden and asked, "Think we should suggest Anthony come up here and try out? He seems to have gotten back up to par and even Kunzel said he'd easily be a top-end Third."

"I think you should ask Anthony that before just deciding to call him up here," Eden replied dryly. "Except he's in class right now—I just saw the kids heading in as I was on my way back up."

"I can go ask him," Sephiroth offered from by the door, where he and Sora were waiting, looking faintly amused.

"The General..." Cloud murmured in awe, stumbling before catching himself.

Sephiroth raised a brow at the red-flushed blond as Genesis howled with laughter again and Sora gave her head an amused shake.

Tifa, who had been inching closer to the pair up until then, froze as Sora's eyes fell on her. "Tifa Lockhart, is there a reason you're being a wall-flower?" Sora asked her curiously.

The girl blushed faintly, but said, "I never actually wanted to join SOLDIER."

"Actually, because she's only thirteen, she can't join yet, anyway. She might like meeting the Academy kids and going to combat classes, though," Eden offered. He then reached up to rub the back of his head. "In that case, Anthony may decide to take the offer to come up here for testing, because all his friends are exclusively girls, and I'm starting to feel sorry for him."

Several jaws dropped as Sephiroth actually laughed, then said, "You do not need to worry about him. He does not think anything about the fact that they are all girls, just has it in his head that he and Elena are Shalua's—and Shelke's as well, now—personal guards. The pair certainly do behave as such. If Elena keeps up that guard duty as she has been, she will be invited to the Turks soon."

"Oh, won't that just tickle her pink?" the Turk snorted.

"And anger Emma, who joined the Turks to try to protect her."

"Lovely. Now shut up and go get Anthony if that's what you're going to do."

Jaws dropped again as the order from the young Turk made the silver haired General chuckle and turn to leave. He then stopped at the door and looked back at Tifa to ask, "Care to join me for the trip down to the Academy? I am certain you will be able to apply easily if you find the other girls good company and the classes of interest."

"Really?" she blinked, then slowly nodded. "Okay. I guess it's something to do while Cloud's busy training." She joined him and they left quickly.

Sora then looked at Eden and said, "Tseng has asked both Genesis and I to see him about the potential of joining you on a mission. Could we discuss that while we wait?"

"That's right, that was a really curious discussion," Genesis commented. "Then again, I don't think he has all that much information." The man looked up at the training Sergeants and said, "Put Cloud Strife on the list for Cadets, and if Anthony comes back up here with Sephiroth, let him and Cloud spar. They should be a pretty even matching in skill."

"How do you know that?" one Sergeant asked in surprise.

"Because Anthony helped the Seconds and Thirds left to guard Deepground's entrance fight some members of Deepground who had been outside at the time, and came out of it without a scratch," Genesis replied with an amused look. "You can verify that with Seconds Kunzel Tarins and Luxiere Vale (1)."

"We'll do that, then," the Sergeant agreed. "Cadet Cloud Strife, come over here and wait for everyone else to finish."

"Yes, Sir!" Cloud replied crisply with a salute, back to normal without Sephiroth there.

He moved over to stand at the wall where the Sergeant had pointed as everyone else got back to what they were doing, and Eden, Genesis, and Sora moved over to a room across the way which was empty at the time. They chose a corner to sit in, with Eden pulling a chair around so he could sit facing the back and rest his arms on the top of it while Sora and Genesis sat normally in their chairs facing him. The Turk was facing the corner and the other two faced into the room, placing them within a couple feet of each other.

"So, this trip to Wutai has more than one purpose, and we can't really put it off too long, either," Eden told the two, keeping his voice low. The other two nodded, so he went on, "One purpose is the strong likelihood that Fuhito will go back there after being routed from Corel, particularly with how high on Shinra's hit-list he is after killing Scarlet. He won't find actual support there after the failed—and apparently unapproved—raid on Midgar, but given the war, I don't think Wutai has the resources to track him down and take him out, either, assuming they're inclined to do so. Lack of support doesn't necessarily mean hostile denouncement, either, and they've got too many of their own problems—the only ones who will shoot to kill him if they see him are AVALANCHE's members out there."

He paused and drew in a deep breath. "The second part is that the leader of AVALANCHE, Elfé, has gotten word that something strange has been happening in Wutai, and they need someone to investigate it because the Wutains and AVALANCHE are all coming to dead ends. Her first thought, given how I'm on good terms with her and with AVALANCHE was to have me go out there to help them." Sora's eyes widened while Genesis tipped his head to the side curiously. "Now, because of our connection, she can give me clearance to walk around there safely, but there are only two other people in Shinra who have the same potential—the two of you."

"How does Genesis have such potential, and why does Tseng feel he needs to send you in someone's company, given how skilled and self-sufficient you are?" Sora asked curiously. "For that matter, why do you assume I have such potential?"

"Tseng already sent me to track Fuhito alone once," Eden told her, answering the why he needed someone with him. "We already had a history, and Fuhito made it clear he pretty much hates me. I interfered with him at Corel and was taking out his experiments, the Ravens, with an ease I'm sure he didn't like—though it was far from 'easy'. I also kept him from running off with one of my fellow Turks he'd been in the process of turning into a Raven. After that, he's got a personal vendetta against me, and sending me alone to find him is too big of a risk for Tseng to take. And before you ask, there's two reasons why Tseng can't go with me, despite being Wutain—they once executed him and his family so he wouldn't have any chance of being accepted back, and he's the leader of the Turks, so he has to be very careful of what he goes haring off to do."

With a sigh and a shrug, he then went on, "Genesis is on terms as good as mine with Elfé, so there's a very good chance she both could and would give him clearance to walk around freely in Wutai. In his case, however, it may not be possible for him to leave the case he's helping Tseng out with here in Midgar, just for the fact that Tseng had to request his help in the first place. In your case, you were a Wutain soldier who they probably figure died on the battlefield, so you were someone trusted and honored, a person they would probably accept back if only to find out what happened to you and what made you join Shinra. Since you've just gotten back and haven't taken another mission, you're also free to take this one if you're interested."

Sora gazed at him for a few minutes as Genesis sighed and stared up at the ceiling. In the end, it was the red haired man who said first, "I don't think I can leave Midgar, because the case is Materia-related, and you and I are the only real experts on Materia in Shinra. Since you're obviously after Fuhito, we can't both go. If it was a different kind of case Sephiroth or Sora could take over, I'd be happy to join you, if only to see the looks on the Wutain's faces when they see a Shinra Commander walking around freely in their territory with their soldiers' approval."

"What happens if you don't find anyone?" Sora asked the Turk quietly.

"Then, I check with Elfé to see if she could give a partner of mine clearance, and if she can't, I go alone, despite the danger," Eden replied evenly. "I don't think she can give anyone else clearance, though, because she doesn't know any of them well enough. Rude is the one most likely to get it because the people at Cosmo Canyon know him pretty well, but all she has is the word of the defensive force they left there so Shinra wouldn't be all that inclined to attack. It didn't sound like Tseng could pull Rude away from his current mission, however, even if that was the case."

"Didn't Freyra meet Elfé directly during that incident in the Slums?" Genesis asked suddenly, leaning forward a bit.

"Briefly. Enough to know she's competent in battle and fairly easy-going, but not a damned thing about her trustworthiness where AVALANCHE's and Wutai's plans are concerned. You and I are the only ones she knows will let them walk away."

"That's not a good policy to be living by," Sora pointed out in mild amusement.

"Actually, it's turned out to be a fantastic policy to live by," Genesis snorted. "Especially when it comes to getting things fixed in the world. Unless their plans mean the people I have to protect are in danger of being hurt or killed, I don't actually care what they do. Everything's a lot less stressful that way. They're not enemies anymore."

"We have returned," Sephiroth called to them from the door, making them all look at him. "Did you want to watch Anthony's match?"

"He agreed to come try out on his own?" Eden asked in mild amusement.

"Yes, though he insists he will still stay at Shalua's, even if he has a room available here," the silver haired man replied in faint amusement.

"Let's see how he measures up to Cloud, then," Genesis grinned, getting up to follow Sephiroth out.

Eden and Sora also rose to follow them, but the woman said quietly before they had left the room, "First, I don't think I'll be able to handle going back there yet. And second, it still amazes me how well Weiss adapted to his change in situation."

"I sort of expect him to have an explosion of some kind at some point, but Vant is a surprisingly good father, and Sephiroth has found he likes being a big brother," Eden told her as softly before they left the room.

She gave a faintly amused smile and added, "It also helps that he has a surprisingly mild personality, I'm sure."

The blond Turk laughed as they rejoined the others in the trial room, which had been cleared so Anthony and Cloud could face each other in the middle, assessing one another with practice blades raised. Anthony was relaxed and had his two Academy-issue blades in his hands while Cloud had the single, larger, SOLDIER training blade and that ponderous frown on his face. They started out by just standing there for a couple minutes, causing the tension in the room to go right through the roof.

"Good, he's taking this seriously," Eden muttered from where he'd stepped up beside Genesis. Tifa hadn't returned to the room, so he assumed she'd stayed with Shalua and the other girls at the Academy.

"Which him?" Genesis asked quietly in wry amusement.

"Well, both of them, but I was technically referring to Cloud," the blond answered with a chuckle.

Like the chuckle was the breaking point for the tension, the two fourteen-year-olds shot at each other, fighting as hard as they could. On Anthony's end, his difficulty was the ease with which Cloud used Materia and how well he could manipulate his one blade to block. On Cloud's end, the greatest difficulty he faced was in having to keep track of two blades in the hands of someone obviously used to fighting. They didn't hold back at all, frequently knocking each other back with the force of the their attacks, nor did they manage to gain any ground against the other for a good forty minutes.

At that point, both of them were panting, so they just stepped back from each other and sheathed their blades, looking a little amused.

"You _are_ good," Anthony commented to Cloud. "I wasn't sure about it when Sephiroth said he could guarantee I'd have a good partner to spar with, but—wow. Thanks for the match."

Cloud blushed as his eyes flashed over to the General, then turned his gaze back to Anthony and answered, "I'm just really glad Ed is really, really strong right now, otherwise I wouldn't have stood a chance against you. How long have you been practicing?"

"Most of my life. I didn't really have anything else to do. I've just gotten—mostly back to normal after being sick for awhile, though, so..." Anthony explained. "But I don't think anyone can actually beat Eden, so if he was your sparring partner, that explains a lot."

"Hey, I'm not super-human or omnipotent, you brat," Eden glared.

"You sure could have fooled me," Anthony retorted, producing laughs.

 **Notes:**

(1) Like Kunzel's name, I'm assuming Luxiere is his given name as he was also one of Zack's 'friends', so I gave him a random family name. Also, Anthony DID come out of the Deepground attack he was involved in 'without a scratch'—all he had was a bruise, and really only one. Feel free to check the clean-up chapter to see what I said about his injury.


	71. 69-Partner Concerns

Partner Concerns

After the last match between Cloud and Anthony, everyone broke up as the boys who had passed the initial test to join SOLDIER were taken to another room for an overview of what they would be doing in the next few months of training. Genesis had to head out to check something in the city where he had been keeping an eye on things, Sephiroth was trying to get the last of his paperwork done, and Sora hadn't said what she was doing, but clearly had a destination in mind. Eden was left on his own again, and it was getting late. He debated checking in on Reeve in person, or even on Rufus, but the latter might give the wrong impression, and the former was constantly busy at that point, so he didn't really want to disrupt him just to alleviate boredom.

Finally, he headed out to the landing pad, checking the chopper to see if Reno had gotten out—which he had, thankfully, since it was the next day. With how deeply he'd been sleeping when he'd left him, though, it could have been possible for him to still be sleeping away quite happily. Since he wasn't there, Eden headed for the end of the pad and sat on the edge as he looked around at the view. Looking straight down from where he sat showed him the Plate and all the homes and people going about their lives under a light haze of pollution, but he couldn't see the Slums from there. Looking out past the edge of the city showed him the wastes and mountains in the distance, and he wondered if those mountains ever got snow. They were too far to tell.

Not long after, he felt someone come up behind him and thought it was probably Tseng, or at least one of the other Turks.

"Congratulations on your first SOLDIER Candidate, Eden," Tseng commented in mild amusement from behind him.

"Who told you that?" Eden asked with a raised brow, not looking at the older man.

"I got the report on the new Cadets recently," he answered, then stepped up beside Eden to sit beside him. "Anthony was registered as Sephiroth's find, and Cloud Strife to you. I know you were in Nibelheim at one point, but how did you find him?"

"I didn't, actually. I thought I was ten, but the group in Nibelheim took me as around their age, so about twelve or thirteen. I stayed with Cloud and his mother while I was there, and in the evenings, the three of us did some sparring—I mean, Tifa, who came here too, him, and I. I had known Cloud wanted to join SOLDIER because he practically worships Sephiroth—and the Commanders—but I never imagined our sparring matches would help him get there. Why was he registered to me when I was under the impression Sora brought him here to try out?"

"Because the two of you obviously knew each other quite well, and as soon as you and Cloud made it clear you were the reason for his skill, they felt it was more appropriate to say he was your find. Turks don't waste their time with someone who has no potential, and—the reason we were formed _was_ to find SOLDIER Candidates. They're assuming he was thirteen still when you met, which would have been true, so had told him to make his way here when he was fourteen."

"Right..."

"I see you haven't gotten to the library yet."

"Hell no. I've been too busy trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I have a home now, and learning my way around said home."

Tseng chuckled at the words, then told him, "I really should have noticed sooner. This should have been the first thing you did, even before you were put on guard duty, not had to do it over a month later. And you should have known your room number well enough to have not forgotten it."

"I only got to go to it once since we got to Midgar," Eden answered dryly.

The Wutain leaned back, placing his hands on the ground beside and behind him so he could lean back on them. "You shouldn't have only gotten one chance to go back to it. Veld should have realized that a lot sooner, but I think he—and probably the President as well—were too eager to finally have someone who could probably keep up with Rufus. Now that the problem has been brought to my attention, I want to try to keep it from becoming a problem again. How long do you think you need to remember it, to start believing it's your home and you can always come back to it?"

With a sigh, the blond leaned over and braced his elbows on his knees. "I don't know. I have a good memory, so probably I'll actually know the number by morning. To believe it's home...I have no idea. It's been—years since I've had one."

A hand rested on his shoulder. "It'll come. That's always a learning curve for Turks. Only a few just took to this being home."

"...How long did it take you?"

"To realize no one was going to torture me to death, you mean? To believe I was safe here and _could_ call it home? I only realized that after waking up in the hospital alive after getting crushed by some debris on one of my first Rookie cases. I had told Veld to leave me there, and had fully expected him to do so because I still felt I was expendable. But instead, he tossed out the case to save my life and get me the care I needed to recover, so...it was only then when I could accept that this is my home."

"...How long ago was that?"

"Around three years. Well, somewhat longer now."

"...It took you six years to see this as home?"

"That's right."

Eden sat up straighter and turned to look at the other man, gaze searching. Finally, he gave a nod and said, "It shouldn't take me that long. It's kind of strange, but I'm used to thinking of a land space or a nation as home, just not a specific spot in that land space or nation. Despite everything wrong with Shinra, I think I've always felt this was home. I just need to—adapt to having a specific place to live."

Tseng smiled and said, "That's good, then. Do you know you've been out here so long Genesis has gone out to town, come back already, and informed me there's no way he can go with you to Wutai if things with our case here keep going the way they have been?" His hand dropped from Eden's shoulder and moved back behind him.

"I sort of figured that," Eden agreed. "He, Sora, and I talked about that earlier while we waited for Sephiroth to take Anthony to the SOLDIER tests. Sora has basically said she really feels uncomfortable with going back right now. Maybe she'll change her mind and decide to join me, but..."

"You're not holding out much hope for that?"

"Not really."

"That makes things rather unfortunate."

"The only other one I could see Elfé maybe vouching for is Rude given how long he stayed at Cosmo Canyon, and that's really only a 'maybe'. To be honest, I was expecting to be heading to Wutai alone regardless."

"Before Balto's speech, I wouldn't have hesitated to send you alone, but now...I'm not sure I can justify that, even to myself," Tseng answered quietly. "You're on Fuhito's hit list. I can't leave you to take that on alone, or we may lose you. We nearly lost Illis to him already, so we _know_ how dangerous he is."

"If I don't go after him, how will we stop him?"

"We may have to wait for him to come back here, Ravens and all."

"...Turks always expect to die when they go on missions. It doesn't change the fact that we still have things we _have_ to do. Stopping Fuhito is one of them."

"Even at our own expense?"

"What the Hell do you think raiding Deepground was? Tell me, how many of our own died then? I don't mean the Turks, since we all got _really_ lucky, I mean in SOLDIER."

The man actually sighed at the question. "Too many, but...We'd have lost many, many more if we hadn't done it."

"And what makes going after Fuhito different? Or does this have to do with your personal feelings for me rather than what needs to be done?" Eden asked, glaring at the older man.

It surprised the blond to see the black haired man looking taken aback before looking out towards the mountains. For a few minutes, he said nothing, apparently thinking hard about the question before giving an answer. "Do you actually have any idea how I felt when Illis didn't report in? Do you have any idea how I felt when I heard the explosion and your scream through the headsets when we went into Deepground, or how I felt when I heard you weren't waking up after being hit by that monster? Do you know how I felt when you and Freyra told me just how close a call you'd had in the Slums? Or are you under the impression that I don't feel much, and what I do feel isn't very strong?"

"What does that have to do with this?" the younger teen frowned.

"You had a brother. How did it feel when you got him killed because of your own carelessness and stupidity?" Tseng asked, meeting his gaze intently. Eden's expression twisted in pain and he looked away. "What makes you think I don't feel the same way after my decisions cause _my family_ to be hurt? I may not show it, Eden, but it doesn't mean I don't feel all the same fear, worry, concern, and even guilt, you do. To realize how much my actions have already hurt you and to have the fear I felt for Illis so fresh in my mind, I _can't_ send you to face Fuhito alone. I can't do that to you, risk your life so carelessly that way. Has no one ever cared about _your_ well-being so much before?"

"...That was never actually an issue before, because my brother was pretty much impervious due to that 'isolation tank' thing and always traveled with me, helping me with my work. But...If something really serious happened, I usually found myself with unexpected back-up, so I guess they maybe cared about me more than I realized then. I mean, they weren't horrible to me and I knew they cared...Hawkeye was sometimes motherly, even." Eden heaved a sigh and lifted his shoulders in a shrug before going on.

"I just figured most of them sent me places to fix things because...that's what a tool _is_. That was something I'd always known when I joined, that I was a tool, a _weapon_ , and I was willing to make that sacrifice if it meant I'd have any chance of fixing what I did to my brother. I knew someday I'd be given the order to kill, maybe even innocent people, and if those orders had come from someone higher than my personal commander, I literally would have no choice. My commander was also the one who kept mysteriously sending me back-up when he apparently figured I was getting in over my head..."

After a moment while Tseng stared at him with slightly widened, horrified eyes, he looked up at the Wutain man and said, "I guess I don't understand it, and I keep forgetting, in a sense, the fact that I really am alone now. Even though I know I am and have 'known' it for months, it's like a sense that—someone's always right there, just around the corner...I haven't quite let go of my brother yet, I guess."

Suddenly, Tseng pursed his lips, then rose and offered a hand to Eden. "There is no bloody way I'm sending you anywhere alone from now on if you're still basically handling things like you've got someone guaranteed at your back. We're going for a walk to the Slums to find Elfé."

"We are?" the blond asked in surprise, blinking rapidly a few times.

"We are. Let's go," the black haired man ordered, hand still out.

Eden's expression became a bit sour, but he took the hand and let Tseng pull him up, then followed him from the building, to the train station, and down to the bar where Elfé and Shears had been in the Sector 7 Slums, called 7th Heaven. They walked into the bar, Tseng marching ahead with purpose and Eden trailing behind like a lost puppy, their entrance causing silence to fall as all eyes went to them. The Wutain began scanning the room, automatically discarding most of the people there as mere members of AVALANCHE—then his brow raised as the pinball machine in the back sunk into the floor. Tension rose as the platform came back up with Elfé and Shears on it, both of whom turned to look at the pair of Turks in some surprise.

"Mind if I talk with you, Elfé?" he asked her cordially.

"Are you talking to me as a Turk or something else?" she asked in reply.

"Some of both, but not with the intent to bring you any harm," Tseng replied. "You can choose where, since I rather doubt your people will be running amok sharing our discussion with all and sundry—you'd already be wiped out if they were so careless."

Her arms crossed as she looked at Eden and commented, "Interesting how the new leader of the Turks knew where we were apparently without you showing him." Both Turks were rather impressed with her deduction, since the only cue she had for that was how Tseng was facing all of them directly and Eden was behind him.

"Oh, come on! Do you seriously think he wouldn't have made the connection after that huge fight we had right outside?" Eden replied with a childish face. "He wouldn't be much of a Turk if he couldn't figure _that_ out, and Freyra as much as verified it because she was worried about me and my apparent link to you. So far, Tseng has been ignoring it and not passing on that data to anyone else, but—Turks really _do_ collect data on any and everything."

The Wutain man's arms crossed as he said, "That's besides the fact that we're deliberately not passing on to our higher ups the main source of your income, even though _all_ the Turks know that one. If you ever thought we were Shinra's puppets, you should think again."

Finally, Elfé relaxed her stance and motioned to a table for four in the back where two men had been sitting, but at her motion, they got up and moved to another table. "Fine, I'll talk with you, but be aware that we'll take you down if we think for a moment you've betrayed us," she told him, moving over to the table with Shears, whose fists were tightly clenched.

Tseng and Eden joined them, with Tseng and Elfé across the table from each other and Shears and Eden opposite each other. It was Tseng who opened the discussion while meeting Elfé's eyes and saying, "I know you have something in Wutai you want Eden to look in to, and there's a good chance Fuhito has gone back there after being routed from Corel. I need to guarantee him someone to watch his back or I can't send him out there."

"Meaning what, exactly?" she asked cautiously.

"I need a guarantee he'll have one of your best watching his back, or that I can send a partner of my choosing with him or he's not going. Of course, I would prefer my choosing, or yourself or Shears watching his back, but..." the black haired man replied.

"You do realize he'd be working with a team in Wutai on their case, right? He'd be working with some Crescent Unit people and some of the local forces, and I doubt they'd leave him on his own if he was going after Fuhito, either. They know how dangerous that man is, Tseng, and consider it suicide to go after him alone," she pointed out in a dry tone.

"How much of their trust do you think they'll give a Shinra agent, even on your word, when Shinra is the enemy to them and has been for years?" the Wutain asked dryly in return. "They may work with him somewhat, but I sincerely doubt they'll care if he winds up kidnapped, tortured, experimented on, or killed."

"Do you think Wutains are stupid? They know Shinra will pull out all the stops if we give him clearance to go 'safely' to Wutai and he winds up dead, especially due to carelessness or deliberate neglect," Elfé pointed out.

"They were stupid enough to torture and murder my whole family for one man's political power and to attack Midgar directly, without withdrawing when they saw AVALANCHE doing so," the man replied harshly. "I wouldn't be with Shinra right now if they hadn't been so stupid then. And I have serious concerns about the actual degree of their honor after that as well. That's why I can't send Eden to Wutai without someone _I_ trust to watch his back. Either you help me, or you're out of luck."

"Why are you so worried about this in the first place?" Shears asked suddenly with a puzzled frown.

"I already nearly lost one of my people to Fuhito, and it was only Eden's sheer dumb luck that allowed her—both of them, actually—to survive," Tseng replied. "Fuhito has a serious vendetta against Eden after it was him who defeated his first round of what he calls Ravens—but they're more akin to walking corpses from what I've heard—and who kept him from making off with Illis. Eden is high on his hit list, and I can't risk leaving him to someone who could all too easily pretend everything was fine, and blame the incident on the criminal who took him. In that sense, Wutai is just as corrupt and manipulative and vindictive as Shinra, and I can't make the mistake of sending my agents alone a second time."

Elfé suddenly leaned forward as she smiled faintly in amusement, saying, "Tseng, by what you said just before Shears asked his question, you consider AVALANCHE trustworthy."

The others blinked at her as silence fell at the nearby tables. After a sort pause, the Wutain man leaned his elbows on the table, linked his fingers, and propped his chin on them, then said calmly, "If you meant true harm to my people, or even to SOLDIER's, you'd have done it one of the many times you managed to sneak into the Shinra Hospital while everyone was recovering from the raid on Deepground. _Aren't_ you trustworthy?"

Her smile widened a bit more before she said, "Stay here for a few minutes. I have to talk with someone before I can give you an answer which will make sense."

The man's brow rose, but he answered, "I can wait a bit. I have Illis taking messages and doing paperwork for me while she's recovering, so if something that really can't wait comes up, she'll call me."

"Good. Shears, I think we should get some drinks," Elfé told the man as she rose. "Did you want anything specific?"

"Just my usual shot," Shears replied. "And give Eden something mild—I don't want to poison him with alcohol."

The woman gave a wry grin as she shook her head and Eden chuckled, but she then looked at Tseng questioningly.

"It's been awhile since I've had anything other than wine," the black haired Turk said with a shrug. "How about one of the mixed drinks, the bar's specialty—7th heaven (1)?"

She snickered and commented, "You'll be under the table in a few sips if you drink that after so long without heavy shots."

"What kind of 'wine' do you think Shinra's executives drink?" he returned with a raised brow. She was still chuckling as she headed for the counter.

When she was gone, Shears leaned over closer to Tseng and said quietly, "I don't know what you're playing at, exactly, but I'm still not sure you can be trusted."

"I never expected instant trust, and the only thing we really have going for us is simply the fact that we're ignoring your presence," Tseng told him. "I have something more tangible to base my trust in you on."

Shears was silent for a moment before giving a small sigh and relaxing his hands so they no longer formed fists. "You're not what I thought you would be. I never figured someone from Shinra would show so much care for someone working under them...I was under the impression the lower ranks are cannon fodder for the higher ranks."

"Turks are _always_ cannon fodder," Tseng answered in amusement. "Nearly every mission we're given is a suicide mission. My job as the head of the Turks is to do my best to keep them alive on those suicide missions, hence the reason a Turk needs a certain minimum skill and dedication to perfection or we won't take them. And to be honest, I care too much about them to be deliberately careless with their lives. Heidegger, on the other hand...I'm glad he tends to leave the operations in SOLDIER and the Turks to their heads, or we'd be dropping like flies like the Infantry."

"No wonder women think it's a waste of time to join the Infantry," Eden snorted.

Elfé returned with their drinks, a deep, golden liquid for Shears, her own a violent green and fizzy, the one she gave to Eden in a pale reddish color, and Tseng's a strangely rainbow-like drink with the general consistency of mercury. Eden stared at the older man's drink as the Wutain stirred it with his pinky until it turned black-opal-like in color, then downed half of it in one shot. Elfé and Shears also watched with interest as Tseng shuddered, blinked his eyes owlishly several times, then gave a lazy grin.

"It's as strong as I remember it (2)," he commented, lifting the glass back to his lips to take another sip. Elfé and Shears both laughed as Eden stared at the man, then swiped his glass to take a sip—only for Tseng to snatch it back with a raised brow. "If you want a taste, dip your finger in it and lick off your finger. Otherwise, you'll have a pretty violent reaction to it."

"How do you know?" Eden asked petulantly.

"Because you've barely had any alcohol in months, all of it weak. I doubt you had any before that because no one gives a kid under sixteen alcohol if they're even half-way in their right minds," the man replied dryly. "To make matters worse, what I'm drinking isn't 'alcohol' by that definition, even though it has some in it—this is a chemical knockout drink _designed_ to down the majority of people, and to do it fast." Both AVALANCHE leaders raised their brows as Eden pouted, but since the blond didn't seem bothered that Tseng knew the contents of his drinks, they figured it wasn't unusual for Turks to know things like that.

Which was actually a scary thought.

Finally, Eden tugged off his right glove and the Kaiser Knuckle on that hand, then used his pinky to take a taste of the drink—and apparently not noticing the transfixed and rather aroused expression on Tseng's face as he did, though Elfé noticed it and frowned slightly. (3) A moment later, the blond's head hit the tabletop and he groaned, "How can you even drink that?"

"Practice," Tseng answered as Elfé and Shears laughed again.

 **Notes:**

(1) This is a drink I created because I just had this idea for the next chapters in mind, and this was the perfect way to achieve the desired result.

(2) The 'drink' 7th heaven has been around since there's been bars in the Sector 7 Slums, but not every bar there serves it. I'm assuming the bartender bought a bar because he already knew the job, so learned to make 7th heaven at his previous employment.

(3) Again, this comes to nothing, and the explanation for why is in the next chapter, but I also KNOW men in particular find it highly arousing to watch someone they're attracted to is sucking on something like fingers or popsicle sticks or other similar things, and Tseng has decided to hint that he finds Eden attractive. Like usual, Eden isn't getting the memo because his mind is on other things. There is NO romance in this story, except eventually a little mild Zack/Aeris! And maybe one or two other relationships, very minorly, depending on the path of part 2 it is.


	72. 70-7th Heaven

7th Heaven

As they were chuckling about Eden's reaction to the drink called 7th heaven, Elfé caught Tseng's gaze, and he raised his brow at the warning he saw in her brown eyes. There was no time to talk about that, or even think about it, as a hand landed on his shoulder. With a start, he looked up into a pair of surprised, bright green eyes.

"Tseng? What are you doing here? And sitting _here_ , on top of that?" Aeris asked in shock. When his brow rose in question, she clarified, "With Elfé and Shears."

"Oh, that," he smiled faintly in amusement. "I'm just trying to secure Eden a partner to go to Wutai, someone who will watch _his_ back, not treat him like an unwanted guest."

"Are you? Why does he have to go to Wutai?" the girl asked, giving him an impish grin and swinging around to sit in his lap.

The Wutain man settled an arm around her waist so she didn't fall from her perch as he answered, "Part of that is on Elfé's request and part of it is for a case for us. Neither has anything to do with the Wutain government."

"Ooooh. And why did you have to come here to make sure he had a partner?" she asked as she looked over at the apparently stunned blond with his head laying on the table and his eyes squeezed shut.

"Because Elfé has to give him and anyone who goes with him clearance with the Wutain government. She'll do it for him, but anyone else is—questionable. I've basically told them that Eden either goes with someone I trust to watch his back or he doesn't go," the black haired man informed her.

She giggled and said, "You really have a lot of gall and a lot of guts to walk into AVALANCHE's main base and make demands."

"Doesn't he just?" Elfé asked dryly in reply, and Aeris giggled again. "I'm surprised he can handle a 7th heaven so well, though. I thought for sure he'd be under the table, especially with how he downed half of it in one go."

"Don't all Wutains have high alcohol tolerance?" the younger girl asked curiously.

"That one even downs most Wutains, sweetheart," Shears answered her dryly, and Tseng raised his brow at the other man. Shears made a dismissing motion with his hand and added, "She's like a sister or daughter to almost everyone in AVALANCHE. Anyone who gets close to her these days only does it with our permission, and Corneo has lost enough of his top guys to us to realize he'd be best to give up on her."

"For that, you have my thanks. My one regret about being a Turk was that I couldn't keep her nearly as safe as I wanted to without leading Hojo right to her," the black haired man said with a nod.

"And you? I know Eden said you see her like a sister, but until now, I hardly believed the two of you might be so close," the older man asked, then downed his shot and thumped the empty glass down on the table.

"In short, she's the reason I'm sane," the Wutain man replied. "And by being my nearly constant companion for nearly two years when I was still young, yes, she came to be like a sister to me, quite quickly at that." He took another sip of his drink, then eyed Eden as he set the glass down. "Keeping your eyes closed won't help with 7th heaven, Eden. Open your eyes and look at me."

With a groan, the blond forced his eyes open until hazy, bloodshot gold met even, clear dark. "Having them open doesn't help either," the sixteen-year-old groaned.

"No. But now I know what to give you to fix it," Tseng answered dryly.

"There's a way to fix this?" Eden asked hopefully.

"Yes. It'll even minimize your hangover. Unless you'd like to let 7th heaven finish settling in and get the full impact of both the high and the hangover?"

"God, no!" the teen whimpered then dropped his head back to the tabletop as he brought his arms up to cover it.

"...Tseng, how much did Eden drink?" Aeris asked in concern.

"As much as he could get on his pinky finger," the man replied, looking up at Elfé. "Could you get me paper and a pen?"

"I don't think he only drank that much..." the flower girl commented as Elfé beckoned a man over.

"He did, actually," Shears replied. "That's the result of someone who hasn't had much alcohol before pretty much starting with something as bloody strong as 7th heaven, especially since it qualifies as a chemical knockout, not normal alcohol."

"Oh, dear," the girl murmured as the man Elfé had called over provided the items for her and she passed them to Tseng while the man waited beside the table.

The Wutain quickly wrote ingredients and instructions on the paper, then handed it back to Elfé, who made a disgusted face and handed it to the man beside her as she said, "I think the barkeep actually has all those things in stock. But still, the cure you use is enough to convince a person to stop drinking just to avoid having to drink _that_." The man headed to the bar with the list—which produced a laugh from the barkeeper.

"I'm actually hoping that will be the case, especially since there are other variants of it which mostly taste as bad or worse," Tseng answered wryly. "In a way, this is probably the best thing that could happen to make sure he never takes alcohol too seriously and to drink it only sparingly. Though, there will come a time when we'll have to get him acclimatized to it—just not yet." Eden just groaned, producing amused grins from the others at the table.

"Aeris, I know you usually come here to see me, and I'm normally the one who checks up on you at your home, but do you think you'll be fine with the others if I go back to Wutai for awhile?" Elfé suddenly asked of the younger girl, who blinked at her in mild surprise.

"Is that for Eden or because you're needed to organize things there?" the flower girl asked curiously.

"Some of both, since I _do_ need to check up on things there and have been putting it off with all the problems happening here. One of our watches has been taken off the list, at least, but we still have quite a few things here we're busy with. The other end of the equation needs some checking up on and fine tuning, and at least I'm known in Wutai. Shears isn't, so it was a foregone conclusion that he'd be staying here while I went back. On the other hand, I'm your main contact, so what do you need from me, and from us?" Elfé asked the girl.

Aeris looked up at Tseng, then down at Eden, then back at Elfé and Shears. "I think I'm okay with the others in AVALANCHE checking up on me until you get back, and I don't think either of the things you and Eden have to go to Wutai for can really be set aside. The sooner you go and do them, the sooner you'll be back." She then looked at Tseng and said, "But that means you trust an eco-terrorist with one of your agents."

"If what I've heard is true, AVALANCHE no longer qualifies as a group of eco-terrorists, and I already know they'll take care of my people, Eden especially," Tseng replied with a shrug. "I trust them a lot more than any random Wutain, that's for sure."

"Wow..." Aeris answered in amazement as the AVALANCHE man returned to the table with a glass which had a slimy-looking, sickly yellowish substance in it.

When the man put it on the table in front of Eden, the blond shifted to look at it blearily, made a disgusted face, and pulled it closer to give it a sniff. "Ew..." he muttered, dropping his head again. After a pause, he forced his head up again to look at Tseng and ask, "You're sure this will work?"

"Yes, Eden, and yes, I've drunken it before, myself. Come on, down it fast," the Wutain replied with a not-quite-smirking smile.

With another groan, the blond picked it up and downed it as quickly as he could, then stuck his tongue out with an absolutely disgusted face. "That's worse than snail slime..." he sighed as he dropped his head back to the tabletop once more.

Everyone else chuckled as Aeris asked, "You know what snail slime tastes like?" She looked a little ill and green.

With a snort, Eden answered, "That was one of the dares the boys in my hometown used to take in spring when the snails started coming out again. We learned which type had toxic slime pretty quickly and avoided those ones, but there were about six different types out there and they all tasted different. There was even one which tasted pretty neutral and didn't even make the girls gag."

"Ew..." the girl gulped, turning almost white with a greenish tinge. Tseng was chuckling as both Elfé and Shears looked amused.

It was Elfé who brought them back to the actual reason for the discussion as she looked up at Tseng and said, "So, because Aeris is fine with the others, I can go with Eden back to Wutai, which also has advantages beyond just the free passage of AVALANCHE's approval. For example, I know my way around so he won't get lost—something even native Wutains sometimes do in unfamiliar areas. He'll even be able to see the current results of some of our plans, and there's no doubt everyone will be okay with him being so deep in Wutain territory if he's with me. I know the next trip through our routes leaves in three days, if you think he'll be ready by then?"

"He will be, since he has the time until then off," Tseng nodded. "As was pointed out to me, he needs the time to get used to having an actual home here. He'd gone back to his own room so rarely since joining the Turks that he'd only been there once in that time and had forgotten his room number, so I'd rather not have a repeat of that. I'm not fond of being yelled at by other Turks getting protective of him, no matter how correct they were to do it." Since he looked faintly amused, the two AVALANCHE leaders gave small smiles in reply.

"You take being yelled at by your underlings rather well," Shears commented.

"If that's all resolved, can we have a happier discussion now?" Aeris asked, making the others chuckle.

Eden looked up at the group, and they were pleased to see that he did indeed look healthier, though tired. "Does that mean you're officially the one acting as my partner in Wutai, Elfé?" he asked curiously.

"I am," she agreed, so he smiled.

"Thanks," the blond answered, then pondered the drink she'd first given him before taking a sip. "At least this one doesn't knock me out," he said, glaring at Tseng's nearly empty glass of 7th heaven.

After that created more laughs, the group exchanged PHS numbers where needed and turned to more pleasant topics of discussion. Someone brought in a boom box and played some random rock and dance music, causing some people to get up and dance, though by the time it had been there an hour, nearly everyone had gotten up to dance at least once. Some of the other AVALANCHE members were teaching Eden and Aeris a dance while Tseng moved over to stand in the back corner and watch them all. Elfé stepped up beside him while he stood there and offered him another 7th heaven.

"Don't think I didn't see how you looked at him while he was licking off his finger," she said as he was mixing the new drink.

"I wasn't trying to hide it then. I don't plan on acting on it, however," he replied evenly, then took a sip of his drink.

"I'm a little surprised to hear you say that. Why not?"

"I have a lot of respect for him, but I'm not prepared to say my feelings are anything more than pure carnal. I also don't know his preferences because he hasn't actually given any indication either way—it's like any kind of sexuality is non-existent to him. As long as that's the case, I'd rather not get involved."

"You're putting more thought into it than most. At the same time, don't you get the impression you may never have an answer unless you say something to him?"

"In which case, that will come after at least some of the mess we're in now is resolved, not before."

"Will you even say it then?"

"Only if he gives some kind of indication."

"You're missing my point."

"Other than the fact that you don't want me taking advantage of him, what point would I be missing?"

"He's sixteen and shows no interest, even in passing, in either gender. Doesn't that strike you as strange?"

Tseng was quiet for a long moment as he debated the words, his eyes on the lithe form dancing with Aeris and the other AVALANCHE members. He then gave his head a shake and said, "Elfé, no matter how strange it is, until something unlocks his sexuality, I won't...put ideas into his head. That wouldn't make for any sort of good relationship, only for a destructive one, and that's the _last_ thing I want to do—to either of us. I'm well aware that in the normal course of things, men prefer female company and women prefer male company—people who like both or who like their own are a minority. The last thing I want is for him—us both—to have a relationship based on a lie, so I'd rather wait until his sexuality has opened up and he's had time to figure out for himself what his preferences are."

"Even if that means you lose out?" she asked with a raised brow.

The black haired man smirked and said, "I'm one of the lucky ones who can quite happily have a partner anywhere on the scale, and I'm fairly certain my only real interest in him at this point is—not for a lasting relationship. We're both young still—I have time to find someone, and so does he, so I don't see the problem. Besides, I have my hands full with my existing family, much like you do."

Elfé smiled and bumped her shoulder against his as she said, "Well, I suppose I have to give you that much. If the Turks are to you what AVALANCHE is to me, then I can see you needing to focus on them rather than on personal pleasure. You're a surprisingly good guy, and whoever you eventually settle on will be very lucky to have you. As for the rest, I'll wish you luck with your family, since things are getting dangerous. Especially if your plan gets found out too soon."

"I'm working diligently to prevent that."

"As are we—but accidents happen."

"Indeed."

After a minute of silence, the woman asked with an impish smirk, "Are you going to dance?" It was the most tangible expression she had ever showed in front of him outside laughter.

"What?"

The shocked, nervous expression on his face made her chuckle and take his hand to lead him over to the space where people were dancing as a new song started, getting him to dance with her. At first, he clearly had very little idea what to do, but after a fairly short time, he figured it out, and the drink he'd already had combined with the new one he'd been given allowed him to throw himself into the music. He didn't just wind up dancing with her once he'd loosened up enough _to_ dance, he wound up dancing with nearly everyone there.

Finally, he was tired and thirsty, so figured he should head to the bar to grab something to drink, but then he looked around at some of the tables and found Eden and Aeris both sleeping at the table the group of them had sat at before. They looked rather cute with their heads side-by-side and their ponytails mixing together, arms linked subconsciously much like twins or close siblings at a much younger age would do in sleep. He had to just stop and stare at them for a minute before he realized what was wrong with the picture.

He was shoved back to reality and blinked away the alcohol buzz as he rubbed the back of his neck and made his way over to the table to sit and stare at the pair. On the one hand, he was directly responsible for Eden, but on the other, he was indirectly responsible for Aeris, and it wasn't safe to leave either unattended. Unfortunately, he also couldn't move both of them at the same time. He was left puzzling over what to do, since he really didn't think either of them would wake up any time soon—Aeris was a heavy sleeper most of the time, and Eden was half-drunk or more, even with his cure for the majority of the effects of 7th heaven. With Tseng being drunk on top of it, thought was slow and action slower, which didn't help matters.

"You don't have to worry about Aeris," Shears said as he took the free seat at the table and met Tseng's startled gaze. "I know that's what's bothering you—trying to decide what to do with this pair. We'll take her home safely when things wind down. Elmyra is getting used to us doing that, you know. Take care of Eden, since we can't take _him_ home—that's something only _you_ can do."

"...Elmyra is getting used to you taking a sleeping Aeris home?" the Turk asked in mild amusement, then rubbed his eyes as they blurred again. "I think I overdid it..."

"One 7th heaven sure packs a punch, doesn't it?" the older man asked in amusement.

"No, Elfé gave me another one, so I had two of them...That _really is_ more than I can handle..." Tseng sighed, still rubbing his eyes. "About Elmyra and Aeris getting home...?"

"Since we began watching over her, she's made her way here several times and partied with us. We made sure she got home safely, and she doesn't drink alcohol of her own accord anyway, so the fact that we've always gotten her home safely means Elmyra has come to understand we're trustworthy with her daughter. She doesn't like it in particular, but it's not like we're making her come here, she just does so—and probably told her mother as much," Shears explained.

Tseng's lips twitched at the information, then he sighed and said, "I don't think I'm capable of walking that far, let alone while carrying someone...Will you be too upset if I call for someone to pick us up?"

"Pick you up?" the older man asked with a raised brow.

"In the chopper if they think they can pull it off, or just by a pair of them walking in here," the younger man replied.

"Why wouldn't they be able to manage the chopper?"

"It's a registered work vehicle, not a taxi."

"Go sit outside and wait for them—that way, whoever comes can pretend they didn't see us or know where you were."

"...I guess that will work..."

Tseng started to push himself up and promptly sat down again, that time rubbing his temples. Shears bellowed with laughter, then clapped him on the shoulder and rejoined the dancers, even as Tseng wondered what had possessed him to drink a second 7th heaven. It was only the Wutain natural alcohol tolerance keeping him coherent enough to talk properly and to not say something completely uncalled for, but he was likely going to need his own hangover cure, and soon. Oh yes, he knew how disgusting it was, and he knew better than to drink so much he needed the cure to deal with it, yet here he was...Well, this was officially his reminder of why he wasn't so careless.

A glass hit the table in front of him, making him look up slowly at the man who had taken the recipe for the cure to the barkeeper. The man was smirking as he said, "The barkeep noticed your condition. That it took you two 7th heavens to get this bad is pretty impressive, even for a Wutain. Now, drink up."

Slowly, the Turk's eyes moved to the glass the man still had his hand on, and Tseng could see it was the sickly yellow cure. With a small sigh, he reached a hand out for it, and the man took his hand away so the Wutain could lift it and down it as fast as humanly possible. He then settled back and closed his eyes to let it work for awhile before trying to do anything else. Finally, after over fifteen minutes, he felt steadier, so pulled out his PHS to call Reno.

"Yo, what's up, boss-man?" Reno answered the call right away.

"Eden and I wound up at a bar in the Slums, the newer one called 7th Heaven, and—can't walk back ourselves. If you can manage the chopper, that would be great, but if not, find someone to help you get us back to our rooms," the older Turk explained.

There was an obviously stunned silence, then Reno asked incredulously, "Hold on, _you_ can't walk back here yourself? How much did you _drink_ , yo?"

"Two 7th heavens."

"Two...?" There was another silence, then Reno was howling with laughter, causing Tseng to pull the phone away from his ear so the sound didn't hurt his head any more. When Reno stopped laughing, he said, still sounding incredibly amused, "No chopper for that, and we're being watched more closely than normal lately, so I can't risk it, yo. I'll be by with Rude, since he just got back."

"Thanks."

Tseng hung up, then looked at Eden and Aeris for a moment before sighing. As he tried to rise that time, he could keep his feet, so lifted Eden and got him outside into the fresh air (well, as 'fresh' as Slum—and Midgar—air ever was), where he sat on the step and leaned Eden against his side. The wait was so long he'd almost dozed himself, and probably the only thing keeping them safe was the fact that AVALANCHE hadn't attacked them.

Reno and Rude both looked amused when they got there, but it was by silent agreement that Rude carried the dead weight of a sleeping Eden and Reno supported a rather wobbly Tseng back to their rooms in the Shinra building.

CA

The next day, Eden woke with a groan and a wicked headache. He was pretty sure it could have been a lot worse, since he'd known several people who described hangovers as being so bad any sound, light, or movement would cause agonizing pain, and he definitely didn't feel that bad. In fact, he really only had a normal headache, if stronger than he was used to, so thought he was actually kind of grateful to Tseng and his hangover cure. How could anyone drink a drink as strong as a 7th heaven?

It took him several minutes to get his eyes open and several more to figure out where he was, surprised to see that he had somehow gotten back to his room in Shinra Headquarters. How the Hell had he gotten there? The last thing he remembered was falling asleep at one of the tables in the bar with Aeris beside him. He wasn't entirely sure Tseng could have carried him so far when he was out cold, and that was assuming they had even left the bar in time to catch the last train of the night. Then again, by the clock beside the bed, it was past noon, so they could have gotten on the first train of the morning instead.

Seeing Tseng dance had been amazing, though. Once he got started, he was pretty much the best dancer there. Who knew he had it in him?

When Eden finally felt well enough to get up, he took a much-needed, hot shower, not aware he had any company. Once he was clean and dry and dressed only in his boxers, he searched the cabinets until he found a basic painkiller and took two, then stepped into his room again to finish dressing—only to stop and blink owlishly at Rude. The man was sitting on the end of his bed, watching the bathroom door—and him now that he was standing there.

The man asked him, "Feeling all right?"

"How did I get back here? And where's Tseng?" Ed asked with a small frown.

"He called Reno. We went to get you both."

"So...he's resting in his room?"

"Working already."

"Working? How can he manage that after drinking a drink as strong as a 7th heaven?"

"You drank a 7th heaven?" Rude sounded very alarmed by that, so Eden waved his hand dismissively.

"He didn't let me drink it, just let me dip my finger in it and lick it off once," he explained. "Even that almost knocked me out, and Tseng's hangover cure is disgusting. Afterwards, I drank something with a taste like berries. I don't think it was a cooler, though, or they'd probably have just told me it was one."

Rude didn't quite seem to know how to take the answer, and Eden still had a headache (the painkillers hadn't kicked in yet), so wasn't inclined to say more until he needed to.


	73. 71-Sorting Sanity

**A/N:** The latter part of this chapter (Eden and Tseng's discussion) is a very difficult topic...actually, I think it ended up being more than one when all was said and done...which can be very challenging to express in appropriate terms, and it will probably—not go over well with some readers. I've done my best to present the topic, and I do feel this is a fair part of how Turks manage to justify the actions they take without going insane in the process. It's also addressing in rather harsh terms one of Eden's most intrinsic personality flaws—one many people in the world actually have (so don't realize it is one). I hope I don't make anyone so angry they stop reading, but feel free to discuss the issue with me further via PM if you need/want to. My stance and presentation of it here won't change, other than maybe for me to work on clarification.

Sorting Sanity

As the older man pondered Eden's explanation of what happened with the drinks, the blond teen found a change of clothes and dressed, hair still down as it dried.

Finally, Rude said, "Don't drink strong drinks again."

"I don't plan on it," Eden agreed. "Tseng's really okay working?"

"He doesn't have a choice."

"Why?"

"Missions still need to be done."

"Even if he has a hangover?"

"Of course."

"...Now I feel bad."

"Why?"

"He'd never have had a drink at all if he hadn't been in need of Elfé, and he only needed her because I needed someone to go to Wutai with."

The older Turk shook his head and replied, "Tseng knew better than to drink so much."

"He wouldn't have if I hadn't—" Eden began.

"Eden," Rude stated in a sharp tone, making the blond look up at him silently. "You were his reason to go. _He_ chose to drink while there. It _is_ that simple."

The younger Turk blinked, then blinked again and slowly nodded. "I guess...Not everyone had alcoholic drinks, and I think only three of them even had a 7th heaven, Tseng included. Am I needed anywhere, or is this literally just a free day again?"

"He might like to know you've woken."

"...I guess there's that. And I have to know what kind of shape he's in if you and Reno had to help him as much as me."

"He could walk, but not alone."

"Ouch. That drink sure packs a punch..."

"You should eat first."

"He's closer than the cafeteria."

"You're eating first."

Eden just stared at the older man with his jaw hanging open for a minute before asking, "Did you just give me an order?"

"Yes. You're abiding by it."

"...You think you can make me?"

In response to the question, Rude rose, picked the blond up in one swift motion, and threw him over his shoulder.

"Hey, put me down!" Eden yelled as he struggled to get away—only to find the older man's arms tightening around him like a vice. Since he didn't have any of his gear on, he had no Materia or weapons in order to fight a physically stronger opponent who already had a good grip on him, and couldn't use alchemy because of the Reactors. All-in-all, it was eerily like Major Armstrong throwing his weight around, and Eden had no choice in the matter.

It didn't take long for Rude to carry him to the cafeteria and drop him in a seat there, an act which caused stares and chuckles the whole way there. Once the blond Turk had been dropped in one seat, the older man faced him and ordered, "Stay put." Eden crossed his arms and pouted petulantly, but remained in his seat, so the bald man went to get them both some food.

Sephiroth, to his surprise, was the first to join him at the table, asking, "So what was _that_ all about?" as he sat to eat his (late) lunch. Within moments, Balto, Cissnei, and Illis has also sat down there, watching the younger blond curiously.

"You look so cute with your hair down!" Cissnei gushed as she reached over to run her fingers through it. "So soft, too! Now, answer the question!" Her hand dropped to her plate as Illis' lips twitched in amusement at the blond's dumbfounded expression. The only way Eden could justify Cissnei's behavior right then in his own mind was because she was only fifteen, and for the first time, he was seeing her as such.

Before the blond could answer, Rude was back with their meals, and as he nodded to the others, they gave him greetings and turned their attention back to the sixteen-year-old boy. At first, the boy avoided answering by picking at his food and eventually eating it, but pouted the whole time—which did nothing to assuage their curiosity.

"Well, what _was_ that all about?" Balto asked finally when Ed went back to picking at what was left of his food after eating most of it.

"There's a good chance Fuhito is in Wutai, but Tseng has decided either I go with someone he trusts or I don't go at all," Eden said with a sigh.

"That's a good thing," Illis replied dryly, and Cissnei and Balto nodded.

"Who did he choose?" Balto asked.

Eden made a face. "Elfé." The others stared, most of their jaws falling open in shock as Sephiroth heaved a small sigh and gave his head a shake.

"Isn't she one of AVALANCHE's leaders?" Illis asked warily.

"Yes. And my free pass into Wutai," Eden answered. "She could have just given me permission, but then I'd have no partner, and there's something she also wants my help with out there. Since Sora's not ready to go back and Genesis can't because of his mission here, Tseng dragged me down to their hideout to basically demand she make sure I'm with someone trustworthy or she's out of luck. She agreed to go with me so we could work everything out."

"...And that led to Rude carrying you down here over his shoulder how?" Cissnei asked with her head tipped to the side curiously.

Making another face, the blond said, "Their hideout is in a bar in the Slums. Tseng ordered a drink called 7th heaven, and the most of it he'd let me taste is what I could get off my pinky finger from dipping it in his drink. That almost knocked me out, and I actually drank more last night, too. When I finally woke up, it wasn't very long ago, and I had planned on stopping by the office to let Tseng know I'd woken before eating since it was on the way. Rude decided I was eating first and I had no choice in the matter."

"Did you eat anything last night while you were happily getting drunk?" Balto asked, looking exasperated and amused at once. Illis' lips were twitching as she huffed a small laugh. Sephiroth sighed tiredly, and Cissnei was pretending she hadn't heard anything.

"There wasn't much for food there," the blond scowled.

"I'll take that as a 'no'," the black haired man answered, lips twitching. "Rude was right to get some food into you to absorb some of the alcohol still in your system. Next time you go drinking, minor amounts or not, eat something with it, something which isn't salty—which means none of the commonly-served pretzels at bars. Hopefully, you'll never drink a 7th heaven again, even in part, though."

"Why can't it be salty?" Ed asked in confusion.

"What does salt do to liquids, Eden?" Illis asked.

"...Sucks them up..." he answered slowly.

"And what does salt do to you when you eat it?" she asked.

He didn't answer, not sure he understood the question, so Cissnei commented, "Eden, the point Illis is trying to make is that salty foods make you thirsty, and being thirsty makes you want to drink more. Bars do it deliberately to get as much money from you as they can, knowing it's a vicious cycle. That's why Balto said you should eat non-salty foods. Now, kindly stop pouting over people older than you trying to take care of you."

"No one's 'taken care of me' since I was a little kid, so why the Hell are people suddenly doing it _now_?" Eden complained petulantly.

A long silence followed the words, until Sephiroth, whose eye was twitching, said, "Eden, no matter how much respect I have for you, that sounded distinctly like a child whining about not getting his own way." Eden met his gaze with a puzzled frown, so he elaborated, "You do not mind people helping or taking care of you when you wanted them to do it anyway, but if that 'helping or taking care of' interferes with what you _want_ , it becomes a problem for you. Real life does not work that way, and people who care will take care of you regardless of what _you_ want. You are being highly disrespectful to the people who care about you by behaving that way."

"That's not what I—" the blond teen began.

"It goes back to all those expectations on you again," Balto said suddenly in realization, making the others stare at him in confused surprise. He met Eden's gaze evenly as he explained, "The flip side of the coin regarding what you were capable of doing was that as long as you fixed whatever they wanted you to fix, they let you behave like an arrogant little sod. No wonder there're so many oddities in your behavioral patterns."

"What are you, a psychoanalyst?" Eden scowled, and Balto smirked.

"Yes, actually. It comes in very handy in any field of investigation, so since I was still of an age to attend the Academy when I first came here, I took some advanced classes in it while I was in my Trainee phase as a Turk. Why do you think I confronted you that day in Corel instead of letting you walk away thinking what you were?" the man asked dryly. "It wasn't just a whim, it was because I could see something wasn't connecting right in your head, and said something would have been destructive to us both. Leaving that alone wasn't going to help matters. Nor will leaving this unaddressed. Sort yourself out the _right_ way if you don't like these kinds of discussions."

The teen gaped at him until Rude rested his hand on his head, which made the blond give a small start and look up at him. He was still puzzled by how that hand on his head grounded him so much or so well, but he was also grateful for it—and he recalled some of the things the two of them had talked about in the past. As he had said, while Vincent made a surprisingly good father, it was Rude who had become a father-like figure to him. No matter how good someone else may be, the one who connected to him and could get through to him had always been this Ishbalan-dark man, a man so completely disconnected from his past. Someone firm and solid.

"Did my behavior insult you or make you angry or anything?" Eden asked tentatively. He actually felt odd asking, and it surprised him to realize the answer mattered.

Rude gave him a smile and replied, "No more than any parent would feel towards a child."

"...That was a lot of words for you, Rude," Illis blinked as the others all stared at him in varying degrees of shock.

He ignored them as he examined the confused expression on the blond's face, so added, "Kids cop attitudes with their parents all the time. It changes nothing."

Eden's mouth opened and closed several times before his brain apparently shut down and he dropped his head onto the tabletop as he tried to sort his thoughts. Rude's hand rested on his shoulder instead of his head, and Eden let it stay there while he was busy sorting his thoughts.

"Can I go back to something quite a bit earlier in the discussion?" Cissnei asked after a silence.

"What's that?" Balto asked.

"How is it that Tseng apparently thinks one of AVALANCHE's leaders is trustworthy enough to take care of Eden for him?" the red haired young woman asked curiously.

"Eden is apparently in her good books enough that Tseng trusts her. I'm still not sure why, since the only times they've met have been in battle and Rufus' company," Balto answered her.

"In Corel, Cosmo Canyon helped?" Rude asked suddenly.

"Yes, Eden called up the Elder and told him about the situation in Corel and Gongaga, which very efficiently helped both towns," the katana-wielder agreed. "Why?"

"They were AVALANCHE," the bald Turk answered, sounding amused.

A stunned silence fell, and Eden lifted his head to look at Balto in amusement as he said, "Yes, Balto, the guard force at Cosmo Canyon is actually a bunch of AVALANCHE members, and yes, they're okay with me, and the 'private message' he had for me was from Elfé, not Bugenhagen. I didn't tell you because I didn't think you'd take it well, Mr. Suspicious. I think everyone in Cosmo Canyon knows I'm a Turk now, and that apparently doesn't really change anything from their perspective."

"Well..." the black haired Turk began, then reached up to rub his eyes under his glasses as he chuckled. "They certainly can be remarkably discreet..."

"That's very interesting," Cissnei commented thoughtfully, tapping her chin.

"Very useful as well," Sephiroth pointed out. He then rose and said, "I have taken a mission which leaves shortly, so I will be away for a few days. Tell Genesis I left the report he needed on my desk, and that no, he cannot take it from my office or make a copy of it."

"Just send him a message..." Illis answered with a raised brow.

"I would rather not give him the wrong impression," the silver haired man replied, then walked away as Eden chuckled and the other Turks stared after him.

"What's so funny?" Illis asked the blond at last, glaring.

"Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal have a code worked out," Eden shrugged, still looking amused. "If one of them says something directly, they have to take it as it is, but if someone else delivers the message, they're welcome to—modify or discard it."

"...That's a code similar to the one we use in the Turks at times..." Cissnei said, still sounding thoughtful. "So, whoever finds Genesis first will tell him. How do _you_ know the code, though, Eden?"

"Uh, they _told_ me they do it, since they used me to pass messages in Costa del Sol a couple times. Not that they _needed_ to be so discreet, but hey, why not?" The sixteen-year-old pushed himself to his feet and said, "I'm going to talk to Tseng now." Before anyone could stop him, he'd left the cafeteria. Rather than going right to the office, he stopped back at his room for his hair tie to put his hair back up in his usual ponytail.

Not long after, he got back to the Turks' offices and gave Emma a nod on his way to Tseng's door. The man didn't appear at it that time, so he rapped on the door with his knuckles before pushing it open. Tseng was at the desk signing papers in a stack, but he looked somewhat pale and had blood-shot eyes, making him wonder if the man was actually okay. When those blood-shot eyes met his, he could also see some pain and exhaustion in them, and again he felt bad about being the cause.

"Doing all right?" he asked the man, who gave him a wan, tight smile.

"I've been better, but I'll live," Tseng replied.

"...Sorry," Eden sighed after a moment.

The Wutain's brow rose. "What are you apologizing for?"

"If I could have gone to Wutai on my own, you wouldn't have needed to go to the bar, and if you hadn't gone to the bar, you wouldn't have had that 7th heaven drink..." the sixteen-year-old explained.

For a moment, Tseng just gazed at him without reaction, but then the twenty-year-old began laughing, shaking his head and wrapping his arms around himself in mirth which was really rare to see in him. He had always shown emotion, but largely very controlled emotion, not like he was currently showing. Only a few times in the past had he shown a very strong emotion, and Eden was left staring at the man in confusion, not sure what Tseng found so funny.

Finally, the man stopped laughing and gave the blond a tiredly amused look. "Eden, I've been to bars without drinking before. Whether I had gone or not, _I_ was the one who _chose_ to have a drink, and that never had anything to do with _you_. Also, I rather indulged last night and had to take my own cure, because Elfé handed me another 7th heaven, and it was the second one that almost downed me, not the first."

"...You had a second one?" Eden asked in shock, feeling tipsy just thinking about it.

"I did. My state right now is wholly my own fault, not yours. Hearing you apologize for that was just..." Tseng chuckled again as he shook his head. "Eden, how did you ever get the idea in your head to blame yourself for _my_ actions?"

"I said, if you hadn't gone—something you only did because of me—you wouldn't have—"

"That's not even logical. Even if we hadn't gone to the bar last night, I may have just gone on my own tonight, or in a week, or in a month, and would likely still have had a 7th heaven or two. None of that had to do with you, it had to do with my own personal choice to do it. Are you seriously going to blame yourself for Fuhito trying to kill you or turn you into a Raven just because you've interfered with him before? If you think you're at fault for his actions, you're literally a hazard to all of us," Tseng told him evenly, meeting his gaze in quiet concern.

"It _is_ 'my fault' he has a vendetta against me. That doesn't mean I'm going to just let him have his way, the psycho," Eden glared back at the Wutain man.

He was surprised to see alarm in the man's expression as he rose and moved over to stand beside Eden and facing him. Hands on the younger's shoulders made him turn fully to face the older man, and a gentle hand under his chin brought their gazes together again.

"The one at fault for the action is the one _choosing to commit it_ ," Tseng said very softly, and Eden might have missed the words if his attention hadn't been so riveted on the older Turk. "We have free will, we have the right to choose. If someone points a gun at another's head and tells their loved one to do something, but the loved one refuses, who is at fault for the death of the one the gun was pointed at?"

"The loved one," Eden replied immediately.

He was stunned when Tseng shook his head. "No. The loved one didn't pull the trigger. The one the gun was pointed at was a hostage to force the loved one to go against their own moral code and beliefs. If the loved one refuses and the hostage is killed, the one with the gun has no power, and is _still_ the only one at fault for the death of the hostage, because _the one who pulled the trigger_ is the one _choosing_ to commit murder. The loved one didn't choose to be a victim in that sick game, nor did the hostage."

Tseng paused, his head tipping to the side a bit as he went on, "We're Turks, Eden, and the entire basis for who we are and what we do is _choice_. We choose our evils, and we choose which ones to bear the burden of in order to let another go so we can fix as many things as possible without being caught. Only very rarely will we use 'fear' to control others or to try to get a response which is in our favor—after all, torture is proven to result in false information the majority of the time, so relying on it is pointless—but others do it all the time, people like Scarlet, Heidegger, and Fuhito. Rufus stood a good chance of going that way, too, but you pulled him back from that brink.

"More than anything, fear tactics work on people who are afraid, who feel responsible for others in instances where that responsibility doesn't belong to them—like you somehow thinking you're responsible for my choice to drink last night when you never had anything to do with it. I _chose_ to throw my own self-control out the window, no matter how you care to say it, just like I _chose_ to join the Turks, I _chose_ to help Aeris and her mother escape, and I _chose_ to murder several people on the President's orders. Furthermore, loss and death are things which happen _all the time_ naturally and don't need to be feared, so while we work to save as many as we can and mourn those who die, at some point, everyone has to learn to accept the fact that people die."

"...You helped Aeris escape?"

"I was never a slouch in combat, and you know what the Infantry are like, Checkpoint guards or not. I knocked them out and began opening the doors and gates they needed to get out of the building while Aeris' birth mother, Ifalna, used a succession of Limit Breaks to fight anyone who tried to stop them. Back to the topic at hand, the fear of death and loss."

"How can you not be afraid of someone you care about dieing?" Eden asked with a frown. "After all, you'll never see them again if they die."

"Like you sticking your brother in an isolation tank for five years because you couldn't let him go?" the Wutain asked shrewdly, and Eden flinched. The man sighed and said, "I don't blame you for caring or wanting to do something to help him, but what you did—did it really 'help' _him_ , or did it _only help you_? People only fear loss so much because they get attached to others and feel sorry for _themselves_ when that person isn't there anymore. It can be traumatizing to lose someone, but at the same time, death is part of the cycle of life. It can't be avoided or made to not exist, and some people die sooner than others. How will you manage when _we_ start dieing around you, Eden, if loss is so hard for you? Because we _will_ start dieing, and the only question is 'when?' It comes with being a Turk, and Veld is probably the only one to live long enough to leave through retirement rather than death. Illis as Fuhito's hostage nearly _did_ die."

"But...Fuhito...And the hostage, and..." Eden tried to say, then drifted off, not knowing where he was going right away. "Why wouldn't you give in to save them?"

"In the example of the gunman, hostage, and loved one, the whole situation is a power struggle to begin with. If the loved one gives in, the gunman has the power, but if the loved one refuses, the gunman has none, regardless of whether they kill the hostage or not. There are—very few exceptions, and generally only if you know for sure you'll get another chance to stop them later and that the hostage will be freed.

"This is something you need to understand, both as a Turk and as a human being, Eden. What any Turk can do, what any Turk knows, is absolutely deadly, and literally the safety of every man, woman, and child in Shinra lands depends on you refusing to bow to that 'gunman', even at the cost of your own life or the life of someone else you care about. I know how hard it is to watch another Turk die in front of me, someone I knew, liked, and cared about, but his sacrifice allowed me and the one we'd gone there to save time to escape. That person's life was our priority.

"Let me be clear on this—there is no circumstance where it _won't_ hurt to see someone you care about die, and if there's a way to save them— _without_ compromising the safety of many others in the process—that is always the preferable route. However, there are two reasons it's _intrinsically wrong_ to give in to the 'gunman', especially if you have the kind of knowledge, power, or resources the gunman would usually go after. One is that the one being threatened doesn't only care about one person as a rule, and saving the one will mean all the others suffer, and vice versa. The other is that the gunman will generally just kill the loved one and the hostage when they've given him what he wants, regardless—you're now witnesses and can identify the gunman, so why would he let you go, regardless of what he 'said'? No matter what, someone will die, but if you refuse, no one will die by _your_ hands.

"As for Fuhito, his hatred is his own, and it would easily find another target if it wasn't you. Don't flatter yourself, and don't torture yourself, by thinking you're responsible for his desire to hate someone. Ever. You're a convenient target right now, nothing more—he showed that by grabbing Illis and killing Scarlet. His actions are his own and have nothing to do with you," the Wutain stated calmly. "His vendetta against you is his choice, and he'd have that vendetta against someone else—say Balto or Genesis—if he didn't have it against you. You're not 'special', you were just in the right place at the right time to become the focus of his already rabid-level insanity."

The words left the teen feeling rather dazed and confused, so he wandered from the office without even replying. No one had ever presented things to him quite that way before, and it gave him a whole host of questions to look at, most of them things he wasn't sure he was ready to face. It was pretty much re-writing his whole world view, though in a way, he could see how Turks would have learned to see the world that way...


	74. 72-Princess

**A/N:** This short (relatively, for me) arc is more for several reasons other than Fuhito or the case Ed's being sent to Wutai to help them with.

Princess

The next two days passed quickly as Eden spent most of them in the library. He'd always been at home surrounded by books, by knowledge, things he could tangibly look at, observe, test. His father's library had given him the same solace when he'd been four and trying to accept that his father just wasn't there anymore. He'd never expected to understand what he read or that his little brother would start following him into the room and reading with him. Whether the books had once belonged to his father or not, he knew there was data to be had, things to learn, things to improve and perfect. It would never end, there would always be more, and he needed that, sometimes just needed to go so deeply into his calculations the world just disappeared.

In this case, his focus was on Materia and what people knew of its formation and arrays. While there was surprisingly little data even there, he did find a few good sources, and thought it was possible some of Shinra's other sources would have more, but for the moment, the four books he'd found were a good start. When he left at the end of the second day, he took those four books with him to pack them along with the huge stack of paper showing the arrays for Zirconaide—and it _was_ a huge stack of paper, easily over a hundred and fifty sheets. After all, the one in Elfé's arm had forty-six of them, and the other pieces had about forty each, even taking into account the broken ones. Genesis had been kind enough to make a second copy of them, so both now had copies to work from until they had more data and could compare notes.

It was on the third day when he had to go meet Elfé for the trip to Wutai, so after stopping by the office to let Tseng know he was heading out, and to say his goodbyes to others of the Turks who were present (he didn't know how long he'd be gone for, after all), he went to meet her. She was waiting outside 7th Heaven, and wasted no time in leading him away from Midgar via AVALANCHE's routes. The trip itself would take three days through their connections, but it would get them there safely, and it meant they'd have stop-overs where they could rest. Most of their stops would be hidden coves he'd (probably) never be able to find again, anyway, so Elfé didn't bother with security or secrecy. It helped that he wasn't dressed in his uniform after the first day, he was sure.

During the trip, she watched him read or work on the arrays several times, asking a few questions about his progress and what he was doing, but otherwise just watching him without saying a word. Between the books he'd brought and notes she saw him make on the arrays, she knew he—and Genesis by extension—were truly doing what they could for her. Their arrival in Wutai came somewhat as a surprise to Eden, as it had been the middle of the night and he was woken from sleep after a few hours of working more on the books. Elfé found his puzzlement rather amusing, but said very little about it and simply helped him gather his things so they could disembark from the ship which had taken them on the last leg of the journey.

When they stepped off the ship, she breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed significantly, and Eden, sleepy as he was, saw very little of the town (1) around them as he followed the woman to the inn. They were given rooms to rest for the remainder of the night, and Elfé warned Eden not to wander around alone yet, especially not while obviously dressed like a Turk. No one had been around to see them arrive because of how late it had been, but the town would be bustling in the morning, and he'd need her to walk around freely. At that point, he was too tired to care, so just agreed, stepped into his room, and practically fell into bed—and right back into sleep.

CA

When he woke, it was to something tickling his nose until he sneezed, and a giggle made him sit up and look beside him—at a girl of eight or nine and dressed in a mostly blue, sleeveless, wraparound shirt falling past her hips and with white shorts. The hems of her shirt and her belt were yellow, her eyes were dark brown and her hair was cut close around her head, straight and black. Around her forehead was a white headband which reminded him of the headbands the Xingese warriors he'd known had worn, making him think she had martial arts training. In one of her hands was a bright blue down feather, which she was waving around as she giggled.

"Okay, so what did you wake me up for?" he asked with a tired sigh, dragging his fingers through his hair to straighten it a bit before he tried to brush it and tie it back.

"I've never seen someone with gold-colored hair before," she grinned. "Or eyes. Those are awesome, like a cat's! I have a cat at home, but he mostly chases mice and ignores me."

Eden snorted, then started laughing, and she giggled again. When he looked up at her again, his lips were still twitching as he said, "Yes, that sounds like every cat I've ever known. You've seriously never seen a blond before?"

"No," she told him sitting down cross-legged and offering the feather for his inspection. He snatched it out of her hand and put it down on his far side. "I've only ever seen the brown haired and black haired Shin-Ra people who came here. Oh! But I did see a picture of the Demon of Wutai once, and he had silver hair—that was so awesome! Hey, you brought weapons with you! Does that mean you're going to join AVALANCHE or the Military?"

First, he blinked at her, then blinked again and said, "Um...I don't know. Right now, I'm just helping Elfé out. Are you talking about Sephiroth when you say 'Demon of Wutai'?"

"Yeah. He's, like, super-strong! All the Wutains really respect him, but they hate him, too, you know? Don't you already know how strong he is?" she asked with a small frown.

"Yes, I know how strong he is," Eden agreed wryly, then looked out at the sun coming in through the window. It looked like it was still fairly early in the morning, but not absurdly early—he didn't think she'd woken him at five or six in the morning. "What time is it?"

"Around seven thirty," she told him cheerfully.

Rubbing his eyes, he sighed tiredly again, then asked, "You realize we only got here at around one in the morning, right?"

"Um, yeah. That's why I waited 'til now, otherwise I'd have come sooner."

The blond teen couldn't help but chuckle as he held his hand to his face and wondered what deity had cursed him—Truth or Minerva. She was a morning person, and a kid with tons of energy, and obviously abhorrently excitable...In a lot of ways, she was like Zack, actually, like a little puppy. No wonder her cat preferred to avoid her. He was really starting to appreciate Al and Winry, and even Alicia and Mei Chang, who had all been calmer than this girl. Well, maybe not Mei so much, but still...

"So, since you're obviously not going to leave anytime soon, what's your name?" he asked after a pause while she gazed at him curiously.

With a wide grin, she hopped up and began bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement and struck a silly pose as she said, "The White Rose of Wutai, Yufi (2)! What's yours?"

"Eden. Or you could call me Ed," he answered, lips twitching as she frowned in puzzlement and stopped bouncing for a moment.

Suddenly, her face lit up and she grinned, "It's a code name, right? So Shin-Ra doesn't find you or track you back to Elfé!"

Lifting his shoulders in a shrug, he said, "Yes, it's a code name." He deliberately didn't address the other part of what she'd said. "You have martial arts training, don't you?" he asked, eyes on her headband.

"Yup!" she agreed. "Almost all Wutains do, but not everyone likes to fight. I'm a Ninja, and I'm proud of it!"

"...So, exactly what _is_ a Ninja? I was never given a proper definition of that." He actually didn't know the term at all, clear or otherwise.

"Well, a long time ago, they were...um...mercenaries or...covert agents, that's it! The Emperors in the past hired them specially when they needed help with something, like, um...un-or-tho-dox warfare, but over time, the ninjas became part of everyone else and taught them to be strong, to be able to protect themselves. Now, our Military is all Ninjas, there's just some better than others. Regular Military are strong, but Crescent Unit is stronger, and there's some who are really, really strong and sort of still act like mercenaries. Ninjas can do anything from spying to sabotage to infiltration to stealing to assassination to open combat." The last line the girl said sounded like a mostly memorized line being recited.

"I see. Sounds like a big job," Eden commented.

"It is. It takes lots of work, but at least almost all Wutains can learn it. I don't know if others can, but Elfé did really well," Yufi explained.

The door was pushed open right then, and Elfé blinked at the girl for a moment before asking Ed, "How long has she been here?"

"About fifteen minutes. She woke me up with a feather," Eden answered dryly.

Yufi giggled as Elfé sighed and addressed her, "You really should stop leaving the Palace without telling your father, Princess."

Eden held his hand to his head in exasperation, even as Yufi whined and said, "But I wanted to see the new person you brought back! I almost never get to see them, and he's got such awesome hair and eyes! Father would never have let me come if he knew!"

"No, most certainly not. It's dangerous for you to wander around alone," Elfé replied, voice patently calm. It was obvious to Ed that the pair had this discussion often.

"I'm a Ninja! I can protect myself!" Yufi replied indignantly in true 'I-am-an-invincible-child' form. Eden was beginning to seriously wonder why all children thought that—him, Al, Yufi, Mei Chang, even Alicia...none of them had ever thought they'd be hurt. Until they were shown otherwise by _being_ hurt, anyway...

"You think you can protect yourself from me?" Eden asked with a raised brow as Elfé was about to respond. Yufi turned to look at him in surprise. "You noted I have weapons. Do you think you can beat me?"

"Of course! I can beat everyone! Well, except my father."

His gaze moved to Elfé and he asked, "Have you been humoring her and letting her win on purpose, Elfé?"

"We never spar with her. What her usual trainers and sparring partners do, however, I can't tell you," the woman replied. "All I know is that she's never suffered an injury, and when AVALANCHE trains, we get hurt—and we won't risk hurting a child."

"As much as I can appreciate that, children don't learn when they don't see reality," Eden informed her dryly. "And I have no compunctions about showing her reality."

"Hey, stop talking about me like I'm not here! I'm strong!" Yufi cut in angrily.

For a long moment, the woman gazed thoughtfully at Eden, then said, "I know your level of skill and control, and I know how much good you've done for others exactly that way, so I'll allow a match. Both of you should eat first, so the match will take place at nine. Yufi, come with me so Eden can get dressed."

"Fine," the girl pouted at first, then grinned and looked at Ed. "But you'll spar with me later for sure, right?"

"Yes, I will," he agreed, and she jumped up with a huge grin and a cheer, happily following Elfé from the room.

Eden already knew it was probably best not to walk around in his Turk uniform unless it was necessary, so kept dressing in his plain, black pants and black tank top as he had on the ship, but didn't include his bracers or weapons. Once he'd gotten cleaned up and dressed, he put his hair in the braid he'd mainly worn it in for the last five years. Ready to go and feeling fully awake, he stepped out of his room and followed his nose to the dining room. Elfé and Yufi were sitting at a large table with several other AVALANCHE members, Yufi across from the older woman and an empty space beside Elfé.

As he joined them, taking the spot beside the woman in green, she gave him a nod and said, "Spare yourself the shock and stick to eating the three right in front of you until you adapt to the Wutain diet and spices."

"What happens if I eat the others?" he asked dryly, taking samples of each of the three dishes Elfé had indicated.

"The spice version of 7th heaven."

Eden groaned and Yufi asked, "What's 7th heaven?"

"An alcoholic drink at a bar in the Slums in Midgar," Elfé told the girl, making a dismissing motion with her hand. "One glass is usually enough to send a Wutain straight to fully drunk, alcohol tolerance included. Though I did meet a Wutain man recently who could handle two of them before reaching that point."

With a snort, the blond beside her said, "Yeah, he admitted he needed his own hangover cure by the end of the night."

Elfé's lips twitched and she said, "I admit, I'm surprised he drank the second one when I handed it to him. He should have known better. Then again, he really didn't want to dance with us, and he probably needed to be drunk to loosen up and just enjoy himself. How do you deal with him daily?"

"Hey, he's a good guy, and isn't actually as stoic as he makes it look like he is," Eden shrugged. "And he's actively protecting Aeris as much as he can, so can you really keep thinking he's pretty much heartless?"

"Yes, seeing her readily cuddle up to him was shocking, but he's surprisingly good at being a big brother to her," the woman agreed.

"Who's Aeris? Someone else you'll bring here?" Yufi asked. "Why isn't she here already, and when can I meet her?"

Elfé raised a brow at the girl as the blond teen answered, "She's staying there for now to support her brother. It's only if she's found by Shin-Ra or her life is directly threatened that she'll come here."

"Doesn't Shin-Ra have eyes everywhere?" the girl frowned again. "If Shin-Ra's looking for her, how can she stay there?"

"Mainly because the ones given the task of finding her are the Turks, and nearly all of them who have met her pretend they haven't seen her," Elfé informed the child across from her. "It's remarkably hard to find someone when their version of the Ninjas deliberately don't see her and never report her back to the main company."

The young Wutain girl looked completely confused as she asked, "Why would they do that? They're all horrible, awful, controlling monsters, right?"

Every member of AVALANCHE went silent for a moment before nearly all of them began laughing, and the ones who didn't laugh were shaking their heads in amusement. Eden also laughed as Elfé gave a heart-felt sigh and chuckled, herself. Yufi started pouting, not understanding what was so funny, and turned her attention back to her food as she kept an eye on Eden and waited for the others to calm down.

"Eden, one thing I'd like to tell you is that, while it's fine for you to dress down like that most of the time, you have to wear your uniform if we're meeting the Emperor. Today you're fine, but tomorrow, we're making the last leg of the journey to the capital, and you should be—dressed appropriately," Elfé informed him once things started quieting down. Yufi looked up sharply in confusion.

"Really? He knows and wants to address me as such?" Eden asked with a raised brow.

"I told him, and he actually wants to know if my assessment is true. He's putting a lot of trust in us both, and his Court—the ones he's expecting to meet you—are aware of your status and what you're doing here for us. In exchange, with the way Fuhito has changed, they'll do what they can to help track him down. For his purposes, you're a representative of your people, something of a good-will ambassador. Which is odd under the circumstances, but...If it works, it's beneficial both ways."

"And my being sent here literally with you just makes that a great deal more viable to his whole Court."

"Yes."

"So when I'm actively investigating, I'm going to be in uniform is what you're saying."

"He might not care about that, but probably. Technically, you're supposed to be in it, anyway."

"There's a provision for plainclothes cases, you know."

"And almost never gets used," Elfé shrugged, then looked at the clock on the wall. "It's almost time for your match. And Eden, Yufi isn't a weak opponent, regardless of how well she's been trained or not."

"I never think someone's 'weak' before fighting them," Eden replied, pushing himself to his feet. "Ready to go, Yufi?"

"Where are your weapons?" she frowned.

"I don't need them," he answered. "My best weapons are my fists and feet."

"Oh," Yufi answered, getting up to follow him outside.

They were followed by all the other inn customers and the staff so they could watch the match, and they chose a clear space in the inn's front courtyard. Several people on the street also stopped and gathered to watch what was happening, even as Yufi drew her shuriken and took up a battle stance. She frowned slightly as Eden's stance stayed relaxed, so threw her shuriken at him, her power and precision impressive, especially for her age.

She then gaped in surprise as he slapped the shuriken aside and caused it to be embedded in one of the inn's front pillars. Drawing small, triangular blades, one in each hand, the girl jumped at him, attacking hard and fast—or rather, as hard and fast as a nine-year-old could. It wasn't that she didn't have skill, because she did, it was that she didn't have the bulk or the real training required to use it properly, and she was used to winning. It began to anger her as Eden just stood still and blocked her with his hands, keeping her from reaching him and showing no signs of strain.

Suddenly, as she moved to kick him, he swung his hands in a circle much like he'd done to Cloud, sending her flying. Admittedly, she almost made it back to her feet—but still wound up sprawled on her belly on the packed-dirt courtyard.

She pushed herself up with a glare and yelled, "You're not even fighting!"

"You haven't shown me I need to yet," he replied evenly. As she turned red with anger, he said, "Don't get me wrong, it's not that you aren't skilled because you clearly are or you'd already be covered in bruises. The thing is that people have been letting you win, not challenging you to become stronger and improve your skills. Fighting is dangerous, and even the most skilled person in the world isn't guaranteed to win, from the Demon of Wutai to your father. If you were being trained properly, you'd be getting hurt, getting patched up, and doing it all again until you stopped getting hurt. I'm the first person you're fighting who is fighting you properly, making you see there's still room for improvement. Take it to heart and _improve_."

As he'd been talking, she'd gone from red with anger to her normal color with her mouth hanging open in shock. After he finished talking, she was silent for a minute, then braced herself with those little knives in her hands and said, "Show me, Eden! Show me what the difference between us really is! Attack me seriously!"

He raised a brow, then shot at her—and in a moment, she'd been knocked backwards, her feet knocked out from under her, and her back flat on the ground as she gasped for air. The one thing clear in her mind was that she'd barely been able to see him move, let alone been able to stop him. By the time she'd gotten her breath back, he was standing over her, just waiting—but when their eyes met, he offered her his hand. Slowly, shakily, she reached up and took it, letting the blond pull her to her feet and hold her up until she got her breath back.

"Real fighting is dangerous," he informed her, resting a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to meet his eyes searchingly. "If you never see that potential danger, you won't improve, you'll never be the best you can be. How's your back, by the way?"

"Probably just bruised," Yufi answered, then looked at Elfé questioningly.

"Princess, I was taught not to hold back. So were all the AVALANCHE members. We have a few people who train the others, and only join group practices once we reach a certain skill level so we don't kill each other. Eden's degree of control is impressive, because we could see he was holding back to a very precise degree so he didn't do you serious harm," Elfé informed the younger girl. "If he'd used those same motions with the lack of restraint _we_ have, he'd have killed you and broken your legs and lungs, all so fast you'd barely have felt the pain."

"Oh..." the Wutain girl answered, looking back at Eden. He just met her gaze evenly as she eyed him. "Teach me properly, then. You're not leaving today, so we have time. How do I start?"

Golden eyes blinked, then sought out Elfé's.

She looked amused as she said, "Go right ahead and keep her entertained. It'll keep her out of _real_ trouble."

He looked back at his new charge, wondering how he'd gone from Rufus to Yufi, but he figured he was, in a way, getting the better end of the deal—and _she looked so eager_...

"Okay, let's get started, then," he agreed, and she cheered and hugged him. He wondered then what he'd just gotten into.

 **Notes:**

(1) I do believe, even with a 'tiny' world like theirs, they still have some small, scattered towns which aren't put on the map because they haven't been important to any part of the FFVII timeline. Wutai, being a 'nation', would have a few of them (we already know about Fort Tamblin and Wutai's capital). The only places I plan to name are the two already named, as the rest are just stopping points, sort of like the town Shalua and Shelke grew up in, where Genesis found the diary and photo album.

(2) 'Yufi' is the actual spelling of her name based on the Japanese characters, and personally, I find it less grating on my nerves...'Yuffie' makes me think of a 'fluffy dunce'. Or something. So, she will always be 'Yufi' in my FFVII stories.


	75. 73-Wutai

Wutai

By the end of the day, Eden had to admit the girl had staying power, and she showed some improvement, even in so short a time. She'd taken the realization of how much she still had to learn remarkably well, but he did have to wonder what she'd think of seeing him in his Turk uniform the next day. Either way, he needed another bath by the end of the day, and he slept quite well that night—only to wake up to Elfé at the door, giggling, and Yufi tucked contentedly under his arm, sleeping.

When he turned his confused gaze to the woman, she said, "It's almost eight-thirty now, and you should start getting ready. We're heading out once we've eaten. By the way, have you ever ridden a Chocobo before now?"

"No, sorry," he replied, thinking back to the bestiary in Junon, where there had been a few pictures of Chocobos in different colors—they were a lot like giant chickens, but smarter and rather placid towards humans. The basic color was yellow, but pictures had included ones in green, blue, pink, purple, and white, and had mentioned black and gold as well.

"I'll pick one of the mellower ones for you, then," she answered, pulling the door shut.

With a small sigh, he got up and quietly found his uniform so he could dress. He was just finishing with his tie when Yufi woke, blinking owlishly at him as she sat up and just stared. His only reaction was to raise a brow and pull Shelke's Ribbon from his pocket to tie his hair in the ponytail he used with his Turk uniform. Done with that, he faced the girl, who still looked half asleep.

"You'd better get dressed and come eat," he informed her, then left the room to head downstairs. Others at the inn were shocked by his uniform, but Elfé and the others from AVALANCHE waved him over, the woman giving him a pat on the shoulder as he sat beside her again.

"Did you just leave her there?" Elfé asked in amusement.

"No, she's awake," Eden shrugged. "I told her she should get ready and come eat, but I think she was too surprised to see me in a 'big, bad, Shinra Turk' uniform to register much besides that."

"She'll get over it once she realizes the man who helped her and treated her so kindly is someone she's been programed to think is an enemy, which means they aren't all monsters," Elfé answered.

"Something kids usually do better and easier than adults," he tagged on with a small grin. "It's not the first time."

Yufi joined them several minutes later, eying Eden with confused uncertainty. For a bit, she ate quietly, then asked Elfé, "Seriously? You're okay with a Turk being here?"

"Yes, Princess," the woman answered simply.

"But..." She stopped before finishing the thought, brow furrowed in confusion.

"I'm still the same person who sparred with you yesterday, you know," he commented to the girl.

"...You're one of those Shin-Ra people, though..." she muttered. It didn't sound much like she was trying to make a point, more like she was verifying his origins.

"Who are just the same as you, and who don't all agree with stupid shit like the war," Eden replied dryly. She blinked at him, so he pointed to her and said, "The war's been going on since you were a little kid, and you probably don't even remember a time of peace, do you?" She shook her head, so he nodded. "I'll tell you something. Most of the Turks and SOLDIERs don't like the war. It's pointless, endless, and a waste of good lives who could have served their people better elsewhere. Just like your own soldiers, they're just following orders, and they can be executed for disobedience. Even Sephiroth doesn't like war or having to kill other people, but at the same time, he's never known anything else."

"So why are you here, and with Elfé?" Yufi asked with a frown.

"You heard that part yesterday," the blond teen replied dryly.

"How much spying are you going to do and pass on to Shin-Ra?" she glared.

"I'm not here to spy, so none," Eden answered with a raised brow.

"And you believe him?" Yufi asked Elfé.

"I do," the woman agreed evenly.

The girl huffed and kept eating her meal. Not long after, they set out on the backs of simple, yellow Chocobos, which were almost exactly the same color as Cloud's hair, and their somewhat fluffy head crests looked a lot like Cloud's gravity-defying hair spikes. That caused Eden a laughing fit, which he had to then explain to the AVALANCHE people he was riding to the capital with. They all had a good laugh at hearing about the boy with Chocobo hair, then headed out, Yufi staying near Eden as she watched him suspiciously.

On the ride, the blond began to notice his Chocobo trying to scratch its shoulder with its beak repeatedly, so he began digging his fingers into its feathers in the spot it kept trying to scratch. It didn't take him long to find some kind of bump, and when he dug the bump out, he stared in shock at the Summon Materia he pulled free—then chuckled at the Chocobo as it heaved an obvious sigh of relief and shook itself out. The Materia didn't quite make sense to him, and he didn't have time right then to examine it more closely, leaving him only with the knowledge of its name, Choco-Mog. He tucked it into his pocket and turned his attention back to the ride.

Chocobos traveled quickly, he realized. Over bridges, up and down slopes, around shorelines, through woods and across grasslands and rough ground, they were one of the fastest modes of transportation he'd seen or heard of. They had pretty much crossed the length of Wutai before lunch, and north to south, Wutai was nearly as long as the Midgar continent was east to west. The only things they apparently couldn't cross were steep mountains and the ocean itself. At the city gates, they slowed to a walk and the AVALANCHE members formed a circle around Elfé, Yufi, and Eden—and Eden was causing quite a stir, though no one approached.

By the time they reached the Palace gates, much of the city was following them, and the guards opened the gates as they approached. Not far inside, a group of well-dressed noblemen and a few in the Crescent Unit uniform had gathered, and the AVALANCHE members pulled up short. Yufi jumped down from her Chocobo and ran to hug the man in the middle around the waist, and at his look of relief, Eden figured that was her father, the Emperor. When the other AVALANCHE members, including Elfé, began dismounting, he did as well—only to find his Chocobo grooming his hair and pressing against him like a large, affectionate cat. Eden just heaved a tired sigh as everyone watching began giggling.

"So what's this all about?" Elfé asked dryly as she nudged the Chocobo back.

"It kept trying to scratch at its shoulder with its beak, so I began digging in the feathers to find out why. It apparently had a Materia stuck in its down feathers and couldn't get it out, so I pulled it free. I'm guessing the shard was bothering it something awful, so me getting rid of it made the Chocobo very, very happy," Eden shrugged.

She chuckled and led him away from the Chocobo as another member of AVALANCHE caught the bird's reigns to keep it from following the Turk. The woman led the way to the waiting nobles, Yufi standing just behind her father to watch what happened with wide eyes. She'd noticed her father seemed more curious than anything at seeing the Turk, and recalled Elfé and Eden's discussion the morning before. Maybe her father _did_ know about the Shin-Ra agent...

"Elfé, it is good to see you again," the man Yufi had hugged said to the woman. His hair was as black as hers, though longer to fall part-way down his back in a high ponytail (1), his eyes as dark, but he had a stronger build and a little bit of a mustache and goatee-like beard. He was wearing a long, traditional, sleeveless robe like all the nobles present, though he seemed to favor blue with a white, long-sleeved shirt under it. A brown belt and sandals, along with a sword at his waist, made him look quite official.

"It's good to see you again as well, Emperor Godo. You're looking well," she answered with a small smile.

The man inclined his head and said, "Quite well. You also seem in good health. It seems Yufi wandered off again. Thank you for returning her safely."

Elfé looked amused as she said, "I don't think it's so much that she wanders away as it is that she has an adventurous spirit and leaves quite deliberately in pursuit of whatever caught her attention. In this case, she was curious about our guest, and seems to have enjoyed his company since we got here."

Godo's brow rose as he looked at a wryly amused Eden, then down at Yufi to ask, "And what do you think of him, Yufi?"

She paused as she eyed the blond for a moment, then looked up at her father. "I don't know. I'm still deciding. But, he's strong, and nice, and he knows a lot. He taught me to fight better, and Elfé said he has so much control he can attack someone without killing them, even with an attack that should have killed them."

Eden rubbed the back of his head, looking a little wan, as the nobles' eyes all went to him curiously. Elfé said, "In that case, let me introduce Eden of the Shin-Ra Turks. He, and his commander, have agreed to lend a hand with our investigation while we in turn assist him in finding and stopping Fuhito." The words caused a startled hush as she turned to Eden and went on, "Emperor Godo Kisaragi is the current ruler of Wutai. He'll introduce you to his Court as necessary or requested, but most of the ones you'll be meeting are present here."

For a moment, the blond paused as he and Godo traded looks, but then he gave a small, wry smile and said, "It's an honor to meet you, Emperor Godo. Thank you for having me here. I hope we'll have taken care of both problems before I leave."

After a moment, the Emperor also smiled and nodded, saying, "We don't often have Shin-Ra agents here due to the war, even while it was in a stale-mate, but Elfé assures me there is no ulterior motive to your presence. I have great respect for her judgment of character, so I welcome you to Wutai. Please, make yourself at home and ask for whatever you need during your stay."

Eden blinked, but nodded and agreed, "Thank you, Emperor Godo."

Yufi watched in amazement, then trotted out from behind her father to plant herself in front of the Turk and announce, "Then, you're going to keep sparring with me so I keep getting better!"

The AVALANCHE members howled with laughter as Eden and Elfé chuckled and Godo held a hand to his head like he was tired. Most of the townspeople at the gate were chuckling as well, and the nobles seemed torn between horror and amusement at her behavior. Yufi just pouted as everyone laughed, crossing her arms and huffing.

"I suppose I can manage that sometimes when I'm not working," Eden told her, and she gave a grin and a cheer, doing that silly pose she'd done back when she'd woken him the previous morning. "But I think there are better times and places to ask things like that."

"Are you sure you know them after Tseng's gall a week ago?" Elfé asked dryly.

"You should be asking _him_ that— _he's_ the one who decided we were going to march right into your hideout so he could demand someone to watch my back," the Turk replied. "So it all falls squarely on him." Yes, in some cases, it was a lot easier to properly allocate 'blame' by realizing actions belonged to the one doing them, he was starting to find—and realized he had been doing that very thing in the past, but only when it suited him or he hadn't gotten his wires crossed. He now needed to expand on that and stop doing it only when it suited him.

"What's this all about?" Godo asked apprehensively. "The Turks found your hideout?"

"They apparently found it some time ago and unanimously chose to ignore it," Elfé told the Emperor, shrugging slightly. "Tseng was worried about Eden, and apparently trusts me to act as his partner in unfamiliar land, and the timing corresponded well with my needs here. I also had the pleasure of seeing Tseng so drunk he couldn't stand up, which was an added bonus." There were chuckles at that.

Before they could say any more, a hand landed on Eden's shoulder, making him look up—at Veld! "How have you been, Eden?" the man asked, eyes glancing over him to look for scars.

"Fine. I'm a little surprised to see you out here, though," the younger Turk answered in mild amusement. "You look better, though, so whatever it is they do out here sure agrees with you." It was true, as the scarring had faded far more than expected and his body was still in fairly sturdy shape. This time, though, he noticed the man wasn't wearing gloves, and his right hand appeared to be...metal? Was that the cybernetics Tseng had mentioned to him back in Costa del Sol? It didn't look quite as refined as his auto-mail, even just superficially.

"It does. Did Tseng really get drunk enough he couldn't stand up?" the former Turk asked.

"He needed two 7th heavens to manage it, but yes," Elfé replied in amusement. "It's good to see you again—F—Dad."

He gave her a smile and nod, then lifted his arm to invite her into a hug, which she allowed. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" he asked dryly as he pulled back from the hug to look at her.

"Could you all please discuss that inside and in private?" Emperor Godo asked dryly, tipping his head in Yufi's direction.

"We can," Elfé agreed. "Thank you for taking care of my father, though."

"Why does he know Eden?" one of the others asked curiously.

"The boy is quite a traveler," Veld answered. "I first knew him as Edward before he joined the Turks and was renamed Eden."

Eden quickly assessed from the answer that no one knew Veld was formerly a Turk, making him search his mind for the man's actual name. He then recalled Vant using the name when the two had first met again after years apart. Veld's name was Verdot, and he would have to remember it. He knew Elfé and Ve—rdot had told him the name later, when he'd been recovering in the hospital, but for some reason, the memory was stronger when he'd first heard it from Vant.

"And Verdot, why do you know Tseng?" Godo asked with a slightly raised brow.

"After the destruction of Kalm, I moved into Midgar. Nearly everyone in Midgar knows Tseng—and most of the Turks, for that matter," Verdot answered in a dry tone. "Go ahead and ask any of the people Elfé has brought here from Midgar. They may not know the newest Turks, like Eden, but all of the Turks who've been such for awhile have taken trips to the bars and such to enjoy themselves, as well as being known by any incidences involving them."

"I see," the Emperor nodded, satisfied with the answer. "Now, so you are all aware of the day's events, the noon meal will be held in the gardens—and, of course, you are all invited to join us. Your afternoon is free as we all have work to do, but the evening meal will be served in the dining hall. Once everyone has eaten, Elfé, Eden, and myself will retire to one of my personal tea rooms to discuss what needs to be discussed. I ask that you wait until tomorrow to begin seeing to affairs here, Elfé."

"Of course," she agreed. "I hadn't planned on seeing the rest of my people here until tomorrow at the earliest, regardless."

With a nod, Godo waved everyone away and said, "Eden, when you wish to retire from the noon meal, ask any of the servants, and they'll show you to your chambers here for the duration of your stay."

"All right. Thank you," the blond teen agreed.

With that, everyone moved into the gardens at the rear of the Palace, where servants brought food out to the tables and the guests and noble residents could take their plates out into the gardens to find places to sit. The koi ponds with their little, red bridges were fascinating to Eden, drawing him to wander in the cool paths around the water with his food. He finally found a place to stand where many fish were swimming around, mottled white and orange but otherwise mostly looking like over-sized goldfish with bigger, more decorative fins. There was also a small waterfall trickling down nearby, into the pool, and the effect was very soothing—so soothing he almost missed someone approaching him.

"Do you enjoy the ponds?" Godo's voice asked genially from behind him.

"I wasn't sure I would at first, but yes. This spot in particular is soothing," the teen admitted, keeping his eyes on the fish.

"The sound of water is soothing to the soul," the older man said quietly. "The sound of waves on the beach is similarly soothing when the oceans are calm. Even rain has been known to sooth people."

"I don't think I've ever noticed before. Then again, I don't think I've ever needed to do soul searching before, either," Eden answered in faint amusement.

"The life of a Turk is a hard one."

"Oddly enough, that's not what I need to do soul searching about. I've only been a Turk for about a month's worth of active duty, after all."

There was a pause before the man asked slowly, "Then what is it you need to soul search for? Or is that too personal to share?"

Shaking his head, the younger of the two answered, "Some of the people I've met recently have expressed concerns about the way I was raised. Up until they started questioning me about it, I hadn't seen anything was wrong, but...some of the points they've made have been far too valid to ignore. Something as simple as looking at this pond...I couldn't see the beauty of it, only what it was made of and how I could put that to use. It took seeing the world from the highest point at Cosmo Canyon to realize what it meant to see beauty for the beauty of it, and to feel grateful for the fact that I'm alive to see something so—breathtaking. More things have been pointed out to me since, so..."

Again, the man was quiet for awhile before he asked, "But some of those things, you've since resolved, I hope? I would think the fact that you can say this is soothing means you have."

"Some of it, yes," he agreed, lifting his eyes to the waterfall as the fish disappeared under the bridge. "As you said, I couldn't appreciate how soothing this was if I hadn't figured that much out. Other parts..." Like the newest ones he'd been hit with by Balto, he added to himself.

"Are there any in particular you've had difficulty with?"

"...How do you know when you've helped too much...or when not to help?"

"That depends largely on the situation. Could you provide an example?"

"Well...Say a village is destroyed, burnt down, but all the people survived, and the one thing they had was food because their underground Stores survived. What if you could just—snap your fingers and fix the whole village?"

Godo was quiet for several minutes, but then he said quietly, "They built their village with their own hands. It would have been painful to see it all destroyed, but homes can be rebuilt. No magic or instant restoration can return to them what they lost by watching it all be destroyed, and using such methods would prevent them from recovering that thing. Rather, my thought would be to provide them the tools and resources to rebuild, just as they once built in the first place, and allow them to do the rest."

Eden looked up at him with a searching gaze as he asked, "What they lost?"

"A sense of safety, security, well-being. The knowledge, pride, and honor of a job well-done, a place of their own which is only their own and no other's. Watching it be destroyed tears from them the safety and joy they had in living, in being part of that community, that life," Godo explained, resting one elbow on the bridge rail as he met those golden eyes evenly. "Rebuilding it instantly for them leaves them bereft of being able to restore that by working to make it secure once more. If they do it themselves, every piece they return to its place—every board, every stone, every nail, every flower—also restores those lost senses to them, one piece at a time. When they have completed the task, their satisfaction in a job well done will be the final restoration of their safety and security as well."

The blond looked taken aback before he leaned on the rail to stare into the pond again. With a small shake of his head, he said in a shaky tone, "Then it's true and fixing it for them just takes away their pride...Apparently, it takes away more than that, too. I don't know what it means to have a home that way...I burnt down my own home so I wouldn't be able to go back once I left, and it never bothered me to have done it. For others, that home means so much that they'll even stay there when things are against them. It never even occurred to me until recently that I was taking something away from them by restoring so much rather than just—fixing tools or something."

"I am quite certain there are circumstances where fixing the homes as well would be appropriate—for example, if you were the one to destroy it, repairing it would not be remiss. However, were you not the one to cause the damage, either the one who did it should repair it, or the villagers themselves should be allowed to do so. If someone was in danger of death, your assistance would be greatly welcomed, great or small, as life is not so easy to restore," the Emperor told the blond. "Age and experience bring wisdom, and currently, you do not have the former and have only so much of the latter. Perhaps more than most your age, but not nearly enough to understand such things already."

With a snort, the blond replied, "That doesn't help all the people whose lives I've already ruined by giving them hand-outs, not the hand _up_ they actually needed."

"Some of that could have also been their doing by requesting that you do the task, or leaving you little choice but to do it. What is it you are able to do, however?" At the curiosity in the older man's voice, Eden sighed.

"I'd hate to ruin your garden, and I'm sure I would if I showed you right here. It does basically amount to what I said, though—except I clap my hands and put them down on things to fix everything, or just to change it. When I'm not near a Reactor, anyway."

Godo chuckled. "I suggest you rest while I ponder a way to see this skill."

Eden blinked at him, then gave a wry smile and turned to leave—he'd finished eating anyway. Suddenly, he stopped and turned back to gaze intently at the man for a moment before saying, "I heard about something that happened around nine years ago, a whole noble family being tortured and killed by another noble's personal guards and some of Crescent Unit. Were you ever aware of or part of that?"

The Emperor's eyes widened in horror as he asked, "Who told you of that incident?"

"Tseng," the sixteen-year-old replied simply.

With a heart-felt sigh, the older man said, "I had only heard about the attack after it happened, and never knew who the perpetrators were. At the time, and even now, I care very much about them, and never would have wished them harm...Though it seems there are those in Crescent Unit and the military who refuse to obey orders and feel they have the right to take matters into their own hands. After the raid on Midgar, I now wonder if the ones who took such unapproved actions included the ones who apparently attacked my cousins." His gaze was on Eden's evenly the whole time, then he surprised the younger by saying, "If 'Tseng' was the one to tell you, he could only be a survivor of the incident, and by his age...little Ren...Please tell him I truly wish I had known and could have stopped his suffering, and that I wish him well in his new life. I suspect he will never wish to return here, though I would gladly welcome him if he would come for a visit at some point."

"...I'll do that, then," Eden agreed with a small nod, then turned to walk away, deliberately 'not seeing' the Emperor hold a hand to his eyes as tears ran silently down the older man's cheeks.

It didn't take him long after that to find a servant and to be shown to his room.

 **Notes:**

(1) The war hasn't been lost yet, so every man (and most adult women) in Wutai is still showing the same sign of honor as Tseng—long hair up in a ponytail. There's not yet a reason for Godo to have his down. Mainly, this is for continuity—as I'm using the basis of honor/shame for the Wutains' hair style, it has to be consistent to the timeframe and current state of society. Yufi, as a child, doesn't have to keep her hair long or put it up in that format.


	76. 74-Emperor's Plan

**A/N:** The next couple of chapters are pretty detail-heavy.

Emperor's Plan

The rest of the day was quiet, including the evening meal. Elfé and Verdot had apparently taken the time to catch up with each other, as he didn't see them again until the meal. Yufi sat beside Eden for the meal, talking about her tutors and her lessons from them, mainly not finding herself impressed after having sparred with and learned from the Turk. And, he'd been right that they had been letting her win, praising her for doing next to nothing—she'd tested it. No matter what she did, or didn't do, they told her she'd done well and let her have a win she knew she could never have gotten unless it had been deliberate.

After the meal, a soldier in armor with an orange breastplate led Elfé and Eden to another room, where the Emperor sat with another man who had his long, brown hair in a high ponytail. The man looked to be in his thirties, wearing the insignia of Crescent Unit, but dressed informally in loose, black pants, a long-sleeved shirt in red, and a katana at his waist.

"Elfé, I trust you already know Captain Inagi (1)?" the Emperor asked as the two non-Wutains entered and sat across the short table from Godo and Inagi, Elfé across from the Captain and Eden across from Godo.

"Yes, we've met a few times," she agreed, giving the man a nod. He, however, was staring at Eden with a strange, wide-eyed expression.

"Eden of the Turks, meet Captain Inagi, one of the most skilled members of Crescent Unit and the one working on the majority of our investigative cases," Godo said to the blond, then turned to the Captain—and frowned at his expression. "Captain, you already knew a Turk would be coming here."

"No, that's not— _How_ can you even still function with so many Materia on you?" the Captain asked as he stared at the teen's wrist bracer.

Elfé frowned in puzzlement as she asked, "What do you mean, 'so many'?"

"Forty-four. I count forty-four of them, though four seem to be—dysfunctional—and at least eight are Summon Materia, which drain far more energy than they comparatively return," Inagi answered.

A stunned silence fell as Elfé looked at Eden to ask, "Forty-four? I've seen twenty-four, but—Inagi is especially sensitive to the presence of Materia, so—forty-four?"

With a small sigh as he saw the Emperor's equally stunned expression, the teen looked at the man and said, "Yes, I have forty-four slotted, but four are fragments of a larger, shattered Materia and I have a reason other than usage for keeping them on me, leaving forty functional ones. Those four give neither boosts nor deficiencies. I can have so many on me because—I have a peculiarity. Materia don't affect me the way they do everyone else. When I slot them, they don't cause reductions in capability, nor do they cause increases, leaving me exactly as I am while having access to the functions of the Materia in question. There are limits to what I can do, but the variety and ability to pick what I need for the situation is highly useful. It just means whatever I do has to stay within my natural capabilities to physically, mentally, or magically do it."

Everyone's eyes crossed for a minute before the Emperor cleared his throat and said, "Well, as enlightening as that is, we are here to discuss the two reasons you have come here, Eden, and to discuss the other implications of your presence. One thing I would like to ask is the degree of contact you are to have with your superiors in Shin-Ra or with those on the battlefield."

"With the battlefield, none unless something serious comes up and they need a Turk's skills suddenly," Eden answered. "With my immediate superior, only as much is needed for bi-weekly case updates or emergency calls for specific information or data from Shinra's files. I'm not intending to be in touch with anyone else unless there's a legitimate question I need to ask a Shinra expert. Only the Turks and a couple others know I'm here, and the rest only know I've been sent on a mission. Unless one case or the other takes me to the battlefield or there's an emergency there, they won't know I'm here. As far as I know, even Heidegger and the President have no idea where the Turks go on missions as a rule, and I doubt they'd care as long as I can slow down or stop Fuhito in the process."

"Why Fuhito? Because he's Wutain?" the Captain asked with a frown.

"No. We have no orders or missions concerning AVALANCHE, but after Fuhito destroyed Corel, kidnapped, tortured, and experimented on another of my fellow Turks, and killed Scarlet, he's on the top of our most wanted list," Eden explained. "If it had been Elfé to do that, they'd be after her instead, but she didn't and he did. It's only chance that he happens to be Wutain. Besides, there are at least two Wutains in positions of power in Shinra, so that's definitely not the reason."

"We were aware of one, a Turk, but not of any others," the Captain commented with a small frown.

"She was once one of your soldiers who had been injured and kidnapped off the battlefield. You probably thought she'd died, but she didn't—we found her recently and she joined SOLDIER. I don't know if you would recognize the name, but she wasn't too keen on the potential of returning here, so...I'm not sure I should be telling you." Eden explained. "Anyway, that's not why we're here."

Godo sighed and nodded, then said, "No, it is not. First, you should understand this. I am taking you as a representative and ambassador of Shin-Ra largely because there are many things which are contradictory about them, and some of those questions, you may be able to answer. One thing I have never understood is why Shin-Ra attacked us in the first place. While a Reactor could possibly be placed here, we are not a Mako-rich land, other than out by the Materia mine, which was not where they intended to place the Reactor. Perhaps you know?"

"Two reasons, neither of which I'm actually supposed to know, Turk or not," Eden replied in a dry tone. "One is because they've known AVALANCHE was based here for some time and wanted access to take them out before they became too powerful." The three others stared with wide eyes. "Shinra knew they were the targets of the eco-terrorists, so they were being preemptive. The other reason is just because President Shinra is very literally a control freak and wants the entire world under his control. Hell, he wants anything he can access under his control."

"Then, we have no options," the Emperor sighed, shaking his head.

"That's not necessarily true," the teen replied, tipping his head to the side with a devious smirk as an idea occurred to him suddenly. It was amazing he hadn't thought of it before, but now that he was in Wutai, he could see it just as easily as he'd seen the way around Yoki's rigid control in Youswell.

"Excuse me?" Godo asked as the others blinked at him.

Eden, still with that devious grin on his face, elaborated, "There are ways around control freaks which lets them feel good about having power, but which make their power limited, circumstantial, and little more than an illusion based on their good behavior. As far as I could tell, the President doesn't particularly care about putting a Reactor in Wutai, but if he wants it for anything, it would be for tourism, much like Costa del Sol. You can maintain governance merely by becoming one of the Executives in exchange for retaining rulership here and giving them a resort town to visit. Throw in a Reactor over by the Mine, and he'd probably let you do it."

"How does that benefit us when it means we have to hand everything over to Shin-Ra, from taxes to our young people?" the Emperor frowned.

"That's not how Shinra works. The President isn't a complete idiot and knows certain basic funds have to go to each department. He may not give you extra funds—bonuses—but he can't actually take all your income away from you and expect any resort to function. Of course, for show, he might create a travel or tourism-related department and make you the head of it, meaning you'd have to take care of Costa del Sol and a few other places, too, but that would probably be a small price to pay to keep general control of your lands and people," the blond said, gaze completely even.

"For us to become a tourist location?" Godo frowned.

"It actually could work," the Captain put in thoughtfully, making Elfé and Godo stare at him in surprise. "Emperor Godo, I recall Eden saying we could designate a town as a tourist destination, and that certain requirements need to be met for functionality. From what I know from Shin-Ra troops our people have spied on, they find a very narrow region of Wutai an actual 'comfort zone' and very much want to enjoy a display of our traditional ways, architecture, clothing, foods, and so on. We could easily build them a literal resort town based on our most ancient architecture and have people live and work in it who enjoy living that very traditional lifestyle or who enjoy service professions. All the rest of the nation would be left alone, and it would easily give us the means to spy on them."

"But how would that justify the remainder of the nation not being stripped of its income?" Godo asked thoughtfully.

"The goods to sustain the resort would come from the rest of our nation," Inagi pointed out in an almost dry tone. "And if Eden is correct in saying they may well give you jurisdiction over other resort locations, the remainder of our nation may serve as the production center for their requirements as well. More of our people would be employed, and many new positions in management and development would open up. It then becomes highly likely that the only income we would 'lose' is the profits from the resort town, which was profit we never had or needed in the first place."

"And what of AVALANCHE?" Godo asked quietly, looking at Elfé and Eden again.

"Has Elfé told you her real name yet?" Eden asked curiously.

With a sigh, the woman said, "Felicia Pereld. Why does that matter, Eden?"

He turned to look at her and crossed his arms. "What was AVALANCHE back when you raided Midgar alongside Wutain troops?"

"...A group of eco-terrorists..." she answered quietly.

"Can you truly tell me that's what you still are?" he asked critically, and she blinked in surprise. "I don't think you're actually 'AVALANCHE' anymore. Your group needs a new name and a new designation here in Wutai. You'll openly serve as members of the government with proper names and jobs, whether it's on the battlefield or in towns and villages outside the resort town. You're in charge of migration and technology development—both legitimate things any nation needs and which you are well-equipped to do. Shinra never has to know you're the ones stealing people to safety, and as long as AVALANCHE is openly known to have disbanded and dissolved, no one has to know all you've done is changed your name and functions." (2)

After a moment, Godo began to chuckle with mirth. The others eyed him in something like puzzlement, so he said, "Yes, that would go a long way towards resolving several issues, not the least is non-Wutain troops assisting on the front-lines of the war. I do believe AVALANCHE could be renamed as well at this point, and now led by Felicia Pereld rather than by Elfé. Eden, would it matter too much to Shin-Ra if Felicia's people retained autonomy, though we would have an agreement with them in order to maintain certain functions which we would normally not handle ourselves?"

"That part would be better discussed with someone like Commander Angeal Hewley, but if Shinra sees the autonomous unit helping you so much in exchange for a minimal monetary compensation, they may even hire them to do similar things. Effectively, they'd shoot themselves in the foot without even realizing they're doing it. The Turks and SOLDIERs would certainly get a laugh out of that," the sixteen-year-old Turk shrugged.

"Shoot themselves in the foot?" the Wutains asked in puzzlement, and it was Elfé's turn to chuckle.

"Yes, that would be rather entertaining, because it would be the perfect way to find the people they want captured or killed and—remove them from Shin-Ra's reach. It would even allow us open contact with Rufus so neither he nor the Turks would be caught in a tight spot from having hidden our mutual involvement," Elfé smiled. "It's strange to work my mind around, but entirely possible. A different name for us..." She drifted off in thought as the others smiled.

"Now, can we move on to the reason I'm here, the two cases I have to work on?" Eden asked a little dryly.

"Yes," Inagi said with a nod, then drew several pictures from a pocket inside his shirt. Those, he threw on the table in front of Eden. "Do you recognize those?"

Picking them up, the blond flipped slowly through them, both shocked and puzzled by them. The backgrounds were generally building walls, or the ground on city streets or alleys, and the focus of each photo was of a design Eden recognized as very, very primitive arrays. Most were meant to cause harm, and their design was so poor they were nearly guaranteed to rebound—yet someone was placing them and was still alive, he presumed. Was the person drawing them not activating them? What would be the point to drawing them, then? By the time he'd gotten to the last one, the quality and sophistication of the arrays had improved slightly, in his frame of reference about a hundred years. In other words, the one doing it was learning fast.

"These are very primitive forms of the arrays used to make Materia work," he said, looking up at the Wutains, and Elfé turned her attention to them as well. "They do more than that, however," he went on as he saw puzzled frowns. Needing to clarify a couple points, he turned to Inagi directly and asked, "How long between the first one you found and the most recent, and are these actually causing some kind of effect, or are they just being drawn out and left to sit?"

"Oh, they're causing effects," Inagi said in a serious tone. "Most of them tore apart people who got too close to them, shattered or exploded surroundings, or reworked the form of whatever they had been on. Those photos are the only ones left, mostly because we saw a person drawing them and interrupted them before they could be activated. Some had been drawn on people's bodies with a knife, and those people invariably died painfully. As for how long, roughly every other day for five weeks now. If these are Materia arrays, how can they even be used, let alone with such horrendous results?"

Eden slowly gave his head a shake, then sighed and asked, "Have you got paper? I almost always have something to draw or write with, so it's just the paper."

The Emperor rose and went to one of the small tables to the side of the room, opened its drawer, removed a stack of paper, and returned it to their table to pass it to Eden. It only took a moment for Eden to begin drawing with the pen he now kept with him in the absence of chalk or charcoal, and less than a minute for him to draw a simple circle for primitive carbon manipulation. Once he'd drawn it, he looked up and asked, "Have you got ash or used firewood burnt down to charcoal?"

"Why would we need that?" Inagi asked in pure confusion.

"Because it's highly malleable," he answered simply. They gazed at him in confusion, but the Emperor rose and went to the door to ask for some wood ash to be brought to the room. It took about fifteen minutes for a servant to return with the requested ash, which was in a small pouch to be handed off easily. Once the servant had returned to his post, Godo handed Eden the pouch.

Looking up at the others, he pointed to the circle he'd drawn and said, "This is a primitive array based loosely on Earth Materia arrays. I say 'loosely' because no Earth Materia would naturally let a person manipulate carbon—which is mostly what ash has been reduced to—but every other array is well outside the range of this one. The major difference between this one and the ones that person has been using is that it has some indicators in it which protect the caster from being harmed. This isn't nearly enough for true safety, but it'll suffice here because I'm an expert on using these arrays. Now, I'll also remove all my Materia to make this point—and Emperor Godo, this also ties very closely into what we were discussing by the pond waterfall."

The man blinked in surprise as Eden dumped the contents of the bag into the middle of the circle, then began removing his bracers and weapons to hand them to Elfé. All of them went cross-eyed when they realized he really did have forty-four Materia on him, but said nothing as they waited for him to show them what he wanted to show them. Shortly after, he had finished removing the Materia and placed his fingers on the rim of the circle he'd drawn.

Almost instantly, the array lit up and light flashed, creating electric-like currents in green-white, and the ash twisted and bent until it formed a simple, four-inch-tall statue which resembled Yufi in her silly pose. After staring for several long minutes, the Emperor reached forward and picked up the statue, examining it closely for a minute before looking at Eden questioningly.

"This is high-quality ceramic. How?"

"A long time ago, the Ancients used to use these arrays, to study them the way we now do science and technology," Eden answered quietly. "It was a sophisticated and scientific art, the basis for their society—until they forgot to police themselves and started a war instead. Or so goes the story. They swore off using it and prayed to the Goddess to give them a means to prevent such destruction from ever happening again. The result was the formation of Materia, which have very sophisticated and complex arrays with sub-arrays of such scope that the average Magic Materia has no less than thirty-five of them. The arrays are functional parts of nature, and there are only two people I know of who can use them properly—Genesis Rhapsodos and myself."

He paused to point at the statue Godo held. "The arrays Materia use are very specific and limited deliberately to prevent misuse, but for someone who knows arrays in addition to the Materia arrays, it's possible to turn plant fiber into cotton cloth, or grass into a loaf of bread. Or carbon into ceramic, or even into diamond. Carbon is actually a very versatile material because it's what we're based on, what everything in this world is based on, Lifestream energy and pyreflies aside."

Pulling forward another sheet of paper, Eden drew a much more complex array than the one he'd first drawn, then took a third sheet and drew a complex array with six inter-linked sub-arrays. He tapped the first one he'd drawn to make the statue. "That's primitive, and dangerous. I'd normally never let even Genesis use it or use it myself. However, because I've been using the arrays since I was four, I'm not worried about it for myself, but it's way too dangerous for average people to use this kind of array when there's no protections or safeties on it. For me, I don't even have to draw an array anymore, so you can guess how safe this is for me to do, compared to others who have to have a drawn array."

He then tapped the base array with six sub-arrays and went on, "This is the general functionality of a shard of Materia, but simplified as it's just an example. This is what the basic Demi spell array looks like, though because Gravity has at least two other spells on it, there are at least two other sets like this, and those three sets have additional control, protection, and exclusion arrays. Demi as itself has six basic control commands to allow it to strike an enemy with a very specific gravity pressure. These don't just control the pressure gauge, but prevent it from going outside certain limits so it doesn't get out of control to apocalyptic proportions. Most of these to someone like me are obsolete and unnecessary, but given how freely Materia can be used, I can see the practicality of being so specific in their use. These also work, fully and completely, when drawn out like this. The same is true of the effects of all Materia, Magic or otherwise."

After giving them a minute to adjust to the new data on the arrays, he pointed at the last one, the very complex single array. "This is the kind of array I learned to use. It has built in to it many limiters and protections against rebounds, things which have to be given restrictions to prevent the whole thing from becoming a death trap. Some look very simple on the surface, but when you look closely, there's markings you don't see from a distance or at a glance. Every one of them is very precise in its dimension and design for the purpose of manipulating a particular medium. In this case, because of what it looks like your case entails, I used a human transmutation basic circle. This lets its user manipulate human bodies."

"Manipulate human bodies in what way?" Inagi asked as he, Elfé, and the Emperor looked unsettled.

Eden shrugged. "However." The others stared at him, so he clarified, "There are components I could have added to make it specific to healing, for example, and those components exist in the healing-based Materia shards. Those components are limiters to make this something benign. Without them, what it does depends on what the user of it—not the one who drew it, but the one who activates it—wants it to do. If that person wants it to heal, it will, but if they want it to coagulate another's blood or implode their body, it'll allow that, too." The rest looked distinctly ill, so he clapped his hands together and put them down on the sheets, causing all three to burst into flames and be incinerated.

"That's why this is so dangerous, because one wrong _thought_ could create destruction where it wasn't intended, and someone intending harm would be unrestricted in what they could do—the only restriction would be their own imagination and the materials available. In the case of a human transmutation array, mainly that just means having humans—or even just animals—in its range. Limiters and protective measures are there so arrays only do things the user wants them to do. In primitive arrays like your criminal is using, those limiters don't exist," he finished explaining as he sat back.

After a long silence, the Emperor said quietly, "I suggest we take a few minutes to break and assess these new details." No one objected.

 **Notes:**

See anything which needs a better explanation? Let me know so I can either edit this chapter or include it in the next one!

(1) Captain Inagi is sort of an OC. As one of the Crescent Unit Captains, they would have existed—I'm just taking one and giving him a name and personality. He's not a huge part of the story, but may be at least mentioned in part 2—that part isn't decided yet.

(2) I'm seriously doing this for two reasons. The first and most important is because the AVALANCHE Elfé and Shears have without Fuhito isn't the same group anymore, so I wanted something to reflect how they've changed. Fuhito can either keep using AVALANCHE if he wants to or just do his own thing. The other reason is because I _loathe_ typing out 'AVALANCHE' every single time, so anything else (almost) is better and easier to type. That I did it for this long is pretty amazing, actually...


	77. 75-Destructive Arrays

**A/N:** This seemed to be a good place and way to clear a few details up so some aspects which may not have made sense before can be pulled together properly. This pretty much takes care of the really heavy data for Catalyst Array.

Destructive Arrays

The few minutes the Emperor requested became several. Inagi rose and began pacing in agitation, Elfé looked somewhat lost, and the Emperor had closed his eyes in meditation. No one particularly wanted to speak again yet, but they knew they would have to, even as Eden braced one hand behind him and began flipping the pen he drew with now between his fingers. Just like he'd told Elder Bugenhagen, alchemy was a tool and the user had to be the one punished, not the skill. It was obvious Inagi's case was that of a criminal. His greatest concern was actually the potential of Fuhito joining forces with the one using the arrays, and he hoped that wouldn't turn out to be the case.

Finally, the Emperor asked, "These arrays...you mentioned something about the proximity to a Reactor?"

Straightening and sticking the pen in his pocket, Eden said, "The arrays have two basic components, Lifestream energy and the personal energy of the user. The array itself dictates the medium and range of results, and the only other requirement is in materials. To activate the energy, the user cycles a combination of Lifestream energy and their own through the circle—that's what the green, lightning-like bolts were. In areas around Reactors, there's _no_ Lifestream energy _to use_ , so the arrays used freely don't work there.

"Now, there is _at least one_ way around that which I've found, and that's to drag or request energy out of Materia shards to activate the array, and obviously, the Materia themselves still work. The arrays in the Materia can actually be modified to a certain degree if you know what you're doing as well, but as a general rule, no matter what the case, around a Reactor you have no choice but to have Materia on you. Regardless, those are all very limiting ways to use something which works freely elsewhere."

"What materials do Materia use?" Elfé asked with a puzzled frown.

"They don't, but the results aren't generally permanent unless you keep maintaining it, which uses your energy," Eden replied with a wryly amused smile. "When you use a drawn array or channel it through yourself, you need to have materials because of several components. One of those is due to the effect generally being permanent, another the quantity of energy both you and the Lifestream are providing, a third the limits of what energy one's own body is capable of cycling without an outside source. When I activate an array, even at my maximum capability, I'm still only asking the Lifestream for one fiftieth of the energy one Materia casting will automatically provide (1), and if I tried to channel more than that directly through me, I'd be blown apart by the energy. That's one of the causes of rebounds when there's no limiters on the amount of energy being channeled."

He took out his pen again and drew two stick-figure images of energy cycles, one without the Materia and one with it. "Now normally in the past, no one could access more than the one fiftieth or slightly more of power, but the versatility of the arrays made up for that due to human creativity and ready access to materials. They sought out an all-powerful object which would make the need for materials obsolete—I knew that object as 'the Philosopher's Stone', and as a malignant object which could be any medium and used as its main 'ingredient' the souls of living human beings." The others blanched again, so he held up his hand in a 'wait' motion, then circled the Materia in the second image he'd drawn.

"Lifestream energy is the energy of the souls of those who have died and returned to its cycle, and Mako is a liquid form of that soul energy. Materia forms in locations where a large quantity of that soul energy comes to the surface, making it a basic formation of _soul energy_ , just like the Philosopher's Stone." The others gaped at Eden in horror, so he went on, "But there's more than one _huge_ difference between the two. Materia are, in a sense, Philosopher's Stones, only in their basic functionality—the lack of need for materials—and in their basic composition—crystallized soul energy.

"The first huge difference lies in the fact that the soul energy didn't come from living human beings, but from a generalized and mixed energy belonging to no one and nothing in particular. Those people all lived their lives, died, returned to the Lifestream, and merged with it, meaning their sense of 'self' had dissipated and been reformed as a small fragment of a whole. No one died to make it, the Lifestream just took excess energy it had built up in one place and directed it to form a Materia shard to separate that portion of its energy from itself. That process is benign and harms no one—it happens naturally even without the Reactors—so right there, it's nothing like the Philosopher's Stone.

"Another big difference is that Materia shards have pre-existing arrays dictating a very specific form or function it has. Those arrays limit what each shard can do. The Philosopher's Stone is just a random battery pack meant to supply a huge amount of energy with no restriction. Someone holding a Philosopher's Stone can create any array and use that to power it to unimaginable levels, where a Materia shard will only let you do what it's specified it can be used for. Even I can only modify them so much.

"The third huge difference is in the result of use—that is, the direct result on the Stone versus a Materia shard. When a Philosopher's Stone is used, the energy is being provided by multitudes of individual souls, and as that energy is used, the souls are eaten away and cease to exist. That means no matter how many people you killed, the Stone would eventually fizzle out into nothing and you'd have to make another—a process which doesn't happen with Materia because the energy composing it is a stable and independent source. In fact, the Materia _gains_ energy and _reproduces_ itself, meaning it would take a very long time to actually run a shard out of energy, thereby negating the need to make more besides what nature produces."

Eden paused to look around at their amazed expressions and asked, "Do you still think Materia are comparable to the Philosopher's Stone?"

"No," Godo answered quietly. "But how is it a Materia shard can continue functioning around a Reactor when it is composed of Lifestream energy?"

" _Severed_ Lifestream energy," the blond Turk answered. "They're independent of the Lifestream completely once formed, and they count essentially as an individual 'body', much like our own. The Reactor can only pull on the energy in the Lifestream itself because that's an energy form, not a physical one—and Materia themselves essentially act as the Planet's battery back-up. Their long lifespan in normal circumstances would have sufficed to supplement the cycle of life energy, but the Reactors are interfering in that cycle, and part of what I have to figure out how to do is return them to the Planet long before they would naturally do so. It still means that, here in Wutai, there's no blocks on the array user, and he or she still has access to Materia on top of that, regardless of how developed—or not—their array knowledge is, and we can only be grateful they don't currently have a Philosopher's Stone."

Inagi sat down in his seat (or on his cushion at the table, as the case may be) again, and asked, "What you're saying is that someone has managed to somehow learn the arrays, or at least their most primitive forms, and is trying to perfect them for destructive purposes, yes?"

"Basically," the Turk agreed.

"In which case, Eden would have to help us anyway," Elfé added.

"The question is, how do we track them?" the Captain asked, shaking his head.

"Can you mark on a map all of the locations where things like this have happened?" Eden asked.

"You think we haven't looked for patterns of location?" the older man scowled.

"I'm sure you did—but not from the perspective of the arrays, nor would you know _how_ to look for an array-based pattern," the blond replied evenly, meeting his gaze intensely.

The others frowned in puzzlement as Elfé asked, "What does that mean?"

"It means paper and a pen aren't the only ways to 'draw' an array," Eden answered her, leaning his elbow on the table as he looked at Inagi. "If this person has figured out anything about how arrays work, primitive or otherwise, he may be targeting the locations he is specifically to write an array straight into the land. What I mean is that, if these incidences have been happening across one city, it may be a city-sized array, or if it's been happening in several cities, it could be Wutai-sized or close to it. Large arrays like that take time to create, but it's certainly possible, and takes in-depth knowledge of the arrays to see. The possibility can't be ignored because it's almost never benign when someone makes one so large."

"Eden, why would someone make an array so large?" Godo asked quietly.

The sixteen-year-old shrugged and sighed. "It depends on their goal and the level of their skill. Someone with a high level of skill could turn a large area of a nation into a Philosopher's Stone, but it's highly unlikely this person has enough skill or knowledge to do that at this point—the most sophisticated of their arrays could never be stable enough to do it. The more likely options are that they're just pissed off and want to kill a lot of people to make a statement and cause fear and hatred, or that they think they have some 'higher purpose' which includes 'sending the good on to the Lifestream'. It may be just a show of power or a bid for the Throne. I'll have a pretty good idea what it is if they are indeed creating a large-scale array, so...map, please?"

At a nod from the Emperor, Inagi went to a table at the back where a satchel had been sitting, opened it, and pulled out the map of the locations—in the town outside Fort Tamblin, which they had passed through on their way to the capital—where events had happened. He returned it to Eden and watched as the teen examined the map for a few minutes, frowning intently. After a blink and pause, his frown deepened in puzzlement, then he absently pulled a few sheets of paper over to the map, clapped his hands together, and put them down on the papers and the map. The others watched in amazement as an exact copy of the original map took form on a single sheet of paper of nearly the exact size and dimensions as the original.

Picking up his pen again, the teen began drawing on the copy he'd made, drawing one array, then frowning at the image and turning the map sideways and drawing another array overlapping the first. After another frown, he turned the map once more to face the points of the sheet up and down, then drew one more array on top of the other two, but stopped part-way as he apparently ran out of points. After tapping the image several times, he frowned again and pulled over three independent sheets to draw each of the three arrays out on individually, again stopping at the place where he'd run out of points on the map on the third array.

"Have you got something in a different color or substance so I can finish this one array?" he asked, looking up at Inagi and the Emperor.

"You can finish it without knowing where it was going?" Inagi blinked.

"That's what being an expert on the arrays means," Eden replied dryly.

The man went back to the satchel and pulled out an ink pot and a brush, passing those to Ed so the teen could use them to finish the pattern. At first, the blond blinked at them, then uncapped the black ink and picked up the brush so he could add in the last part of the array in a distinctly different color from what he'd drawn the rest with. He then re-capped the ink bottle and spread out the original map, the copy, and the three arrays across the table. After several minutes, he drew four blue x's on the original map with his pen.

"Those are the only locations he has to mark," Eden said once he'd marked the last.

"Could he be planning another array?" Elfé asked apprehensively.

"No. If he tries, it'll collapse under its own weight and—let's just say I'd rather be hit by a meteor than be alive on this planet if he actually tries to add another array to the three he's already overlapping," the Turk answered, absently tapping the pen on one of the sheets he'd drawn the arrays on. "If it was Fuhito, he'd probably do something like that on purpose for exactly that reason, but if that was the case, he wouldn't be doing it like these guys are—not openly until he wanted it seen."

"How do you know those three arrays are correct, and that those four locations will finish them?" the Captain asked as he pulled over the original map, which now had four blue x's on it. "Could he think he's creating just one array?"

"Based on his level of knowledge and skill, he knows they're three separate arrays and wants to activate all three at once," Eden shrugged, tapping the incomplete one with the pen in his hand. "Arrays are an energy flow, regardless of materials and medium. There are certain minimum points required to form an array and allow the energy flow to connect the dots appropriately. For example, the points creating the base circle all three are using would draw an octagon or octagram if connected with straight lines, but the array energy will draw those lines as a circle, not an octagon. The only reason is because eight points is the minimum to cause automatic formation of the circle in the array energy. Obviously, more points is better, but eight will still do it."

"So you're saying these four points have to be there for him to get the right circle?" Inagi asked with a small frown as he tapped one of the blue ink x's.

"Yes."

"You're sure he knows that?"

"Based on the results of the other two circles, yes."

"So what do these circles do?"

"The first is a human transmutation circle with no particular purpose. The second is a growth circle which would usually be used to make plants grow or revitalize dying ones. The third is an intense application of heat. It amounts to making everything overly large—likely to prevent escape—then cooking it alive."

"Eden, why would anyone want to do that? Even Fuhito isn't quite _that_ twisted," Elfé asked with a deep frown.

"He only isn't because he knows nothing about the arrays or how to use them directly. Frankly, he'll turn the world into a Hell-hole if he finds out about this and decides to start learning about the arrays," the Turk answered. "But this one is mainly just doing it—because he's a sadist. He likes to see people afraid and in pain. I don't think he's actually got a goal beyond that, especially if he's doing this to his own people and not to Shinra's troops."

"No, Fort Tamblin is now far from the frontlines," Inagi sighed. "But why now? We have no records which would show such things, so it had to have come from outside Wutai, and even you Shin-Ra people don't have many records of this. Then again, if you learned this in Shin-Ra—"

"I didn't," Eden cut him off. "As for why now, it could just be because there's something random...that people are—accessing data in a leap of scientific innovation, or someone found a source which had a few basic arrays in it."

"The books you brought with you had arrays in them," Elfé pointed out.

"He wasn't using those as his basis or his arrays would have more required components—and would have already rebounded on him. Those are arrays directly related to Materia, and even if he knows about them, he may think those can't be used any other way. As far as I know, though, the people who can see Materia arrays in the first place are few and far between—you're lucky to find one in a generation. The ones who can manipulate the arrays in the Materia and even create new effects using those arrays—I only know of one person besides myself who can, and he won't dare do it anywhere near Shinra for fear of it being twisted into another sick human experiment," the blond answered her evenly.

"...Genesis?" she asked in sudden understanding. He nodded, so she commented, "In that case, I feel very privileged to have seen the two of you work on the arrays, and you and he both existing at the same time are actually an anomaly. That says a great deal about the state of the world." She paused as the two Wutain men gaped at her, but she went on, "But this all means the criminal's source is somewhere else, and we're very limited in time to stop him. Unless there's another way to stop this?"

"There is, but unless I do it, you'd never be able to break the circle fast enough to make it valid," Eden answered, meeting her gaze, then the Emperor's.

"What do you mean?" Godo asked, just as the Turk had known he would.

"I could completely destroy and negate his existing arrays, but to do it, I'd have to basically re-design the city. For example, moving the foundations of his points off those points requires moving the whole building and putting something else there, breaking the circle and the array by force. This also—depends on where blood was spilled. If the outer circle and the key lines of the arrays were locations where someone died and their blood touched the ground, the only way to break it is to strip those locations of the bloodied ground or the circle will hold. Otherwise, these are now permanent fixtures of Fort Tamblin and your only chance is to catch him before he finishes it and hope no one else was helping him or knew about what he was doing."

"Why don't we just send guards to wait at these points to catch him?" Inagi replied in an exasperated tone.

"You won't catch him that way," Eden answered. "He'll just go into hiding, wait for you to lower your guards, then finish what he started. I mean, you could have someone good at staying out of sight watching each to see if they catch sight of who's doing it, but ultimately, the arrays will remain a danger as long as they're there, and two are already complete. He might just decide to activate those two without finishing the third, which can still kill everyone in its range, and this without the 'cooked alive' part would be just as painful for a much longer period of time. Also, I hate to be the one to admit this because all of you are probably thinking this is a God-like power. The reality is, it's not. Once he's done this—made everyone overly large—it pretty much can't be returned to normal, and any attempts to do so would be met with limited success. What these arrays do is _premanent_ , remember?"

The others stared at him for a moment before the Emperor looked at Inagi and asked, "Are you able to indicate where deaths took place?"

With a nod, the Captain laid the original map out again and began circling the ones where someone had specifically died, using the same brush and ink he'd given the blond to use earlier. By the time he'd finished, he had also realized very precise parts of the arrays had been sites of death, like the circle and the central lines of the three arrays. The others had also seen it already as well, and Eden had pursed his lips by the time Inagi had marked off the circle surrounding much of the city.

"Well, that basically means he really wanted to lock in the arrays," the Turk sighed. "I'd be most likely to start stripping him of the outer circle in the part of town furthest from where he's working, since that would make all three arrays ineffective. Are you building anything around the south and west sides of the town, or planning to?"

"Three of those four locations physically damaged buildings, so we're rebuilding those," Inagi agreed. "Otherwise, there are no plans in place there."

"Then in this case, I'll go to those locations as part of my 'touring' the city as a Shinra representative, as well as to other locations of note, and remove the danger zones without changing how things look, or changing as little as I can to still break the circle. What I need is a believable route to take me by those locations so no one will think anything is at all strange about the fact that I'm there. That way, he'll still be operating under the assumption that his arrays are complete and functional. You may be able to catch him before he tries activating the circle in the first place, and I hope you do, but either way, this can't be left or it's a permanent danger."

"That can easily be arranged by the day after tomorrow," Ingai answered. "Now, we have something to work with here, but what can we do to help you in your search for Fuhito?"

"Besides keeping an eye out for him and giving me a list of and access to places he's likely to try turning up, like old haunts or things, there isn't really much to be done with him," Eden answered with a small sigh. "This is literally a hit-and-miss in trying to find him after he fled Corel. Since he succeeded in killing Scarlet, it's not that likely he stayed in Shinra territory, but we can't verify where he did or didn't go other than a few specific locations. The Turks are scattered around in all different towns and areas looking for him, but I'm the only one who can come to Wutai to track him here. It's a lot of ground to cover, but—if he _is_ here, better to get to him now rather than leave him to keep developing Ravens."

"AVALANCHE can verify he hasn't been back to any of the locations we use as bases—we still have our own people there, as they'll only move out when I give the order, likely tomorrow. He's found somewhere else to hide," Elfé said, and Eden gave a nod of acknowledgment.

"What are 'Ravens', exactly?" the Captain asked with a small frown.

"From what I could tell, they're like walking corpses whose only purpose is to fight and kill," Eden answered. The others looked unsettled. "I don't think they quite qualify as 'corpses', because they don't behave like a man I know who _did_ die and whose soul was forced to stay in his body—even just the physical traits don't match. Ravens don't seem to have any independent thought capacity currently, and while their movements are jolting, they have increased strength and combat and defensive skills which are dangerous, even to someone like me. I could stab one in the heart and it didn't 'die' until I beheaded that one. Cutting off the head or impaling them—destroying most of their internal organs, that is—are the only ways to kill them, but doing so is—abnormally hard with their defensive skills."

"Doesn't that depend on the extent of your actual skills?" the Captain asked with a slight sneer.

"Inagi, Eden is easily a match for Sephiroth," Elfé told the man, lips twitching in amusement. "And you _know_ his skill level."

There was a moment of silence and an incredulous, disbelieving look from the older man before Godo asked, "Surely you do not mean his skills are so extensive or powerful, as a Turk without enhancements or our martial training?"

"The way I understand it is that just Tseng and Eden kept every one of your Wutain soldiers targeting the Shin-Ra executives from so much as reaching the door to the President's office, and that was _after_ both had climbed extensively to get there. I heard later that Eden actually climbed the outside of the building and reached the top before more than ten Wutains had done so, and he'd been taking soldiers down on his way up. Normally, only someone with Sephiroth's skill could manage that," the younger woman replied, expression completely flat and indifferent. "Genesis told me Tseng and Eden left behind over seventy bodies at the top, and another twenty or so up the side of the building. They had probably killed more than that and the earlier bodies had already returned to the Lifestream by then. That's no small number, and the number at the top was about equal to what Sephiroth, Angeal, and five Thirds took on down in the city itself. Two against the odds trumps seven."

Before Inagi could say anything, the Emperor asked, gaze fascinated and excited, "Eden, would you be willing to spar with me—without using Materia?"

"Lack of Materia isn't much of a handicap in a place where there's no Reactor," Eden answered in amusement. "But yes, if you want to see the full range of my abilities, sparring is a good way to do so."

"Shall we step outside, then?" the man asked.

Eden grinned and agreed, "Sure, that'll be fun!"

 **Notes:**

(1) I'm using a random number which is large enough to impress upon people the fact that Materia is, in fact, extremely powerful in comparison to a human, even as a 'tiny' fragment of Minerva's power. This sets the basis for general energy usage assessments as well, given how powerful Eden (and Genesis) is.


	78. 76-Anti-Gravity

**A/N:** Yes, as usual, Veld will now mainly be known as Verdot.

Anti-Gravity

The Emperor and Turk moved to a courtyard in front of a five-floor pagoda, a structure Eden only recognized from in some books about Xing he'd found back in Amestris. Elfé was carrying his weapons and bracers still, and both she and Inagi had followed them outside, even as a hush fell and people began gathering around. Those people ranged from the soldiers to the servants to nobles to others from AVALANCHE to Yufi and Veld—Verdot, Ed had to remember to call him Verdot.

"I almost feel bad if you have no weapon," the Emperor commented.

Eden smirked and replied, "I told you, away from the Reactors, that's not actually a handicap—it just means I revert to the skills I used growing up, and you get to see that skill in use like you wanted."

He then clapped his hands together and crouched to put them down on the stone below him, drawing his hands upwards as he pulled the metal out of the stone and created a spear out of it. There was a shallow hole in the flagstones where he'd drawn the metal from, and everyone was staring at him with their mouths hanging open as he held the spear in a relaxed grip at his side, standing straight again. Like he'd noticed with the Dragon in Mount Nibel, it felt _good_ to have a spear in his hands again, making him smile with something like euphoria.

When the sixteen-year-old began spinning the spear lazily in one hand, Godo chuckled and commented, "Now _that_ is quite useful. Why a spear, though? I took you as a swordsman."

"Well, it's more like, I can use any weapon put in my hands, and I chose a sword, dagger, and glove for practicality, nothing more. Before then, I had frequently used spears, and they're one of my favorites in combat, but they're just not practical in general for me to use at the moment. And you haven't seen anything of my skills yet, just to give you fair warning. Think back on our noon meal discussion and what I had said then—a spear is a small thing compared to what I told you I could do," Eden answered, grinning widely.

The older man looked amused at the reminder, then said, "In which case, I have no need to hold back."

Eden blinked in surprise as light flared around the man and he suddenly morphed into a form more like a four-faced monster which was over twice Godo's human height. Murmurs of surprise rose from the watchers, but he realized the being with four arms, two of which held some kind of object, would be dangerous. The man's sword was in one hand, but it had been somehow enlarged to fit the size of the monster, and a device similar to a highly decorated, gold barbell (1) was in another, but the other two moved in unarmed and Materia-casting motions. None of those hands were useless or uncoordinated, and with the man's likely ability to use Materia, the playing field was evened substantially. The thought made the Turk grin with excitement and anticipation of a good match.

As Godo jumped forward to bring the sword down on him and cast lightning at the same time, Eden easily dodged both and jumped forward to attack with the spear, aiming for the shoulder of one of the empty hands. His spear was knocked aside, then caught and twisted, swinging him upwards before throwing him—and as soon as he came down, he'd already clapped and placed his hands on the ground, causing it to surge in spikes which forced Godo back with minor injuries. At the same time, the spikes created a veritable wall, causing the next spellcast to strike it rather than the teen. It only took Ed a moment to retrieve his spear from where he'd dropped it on his way down, a few feet from himself.

A thoughtful pause gave everyone the chance to release the breaths they'd been holding, then the two combatants began attacking mainly with their sword and spear, respectively. The pace of the battle was rapid and involved a smaller, very mobile form ducking, dodging, and jumping around a larger, mainly stable form. Neither really made any headway against the other, nor did they leave each other uninjured—minor injuries which were mere scratches and barely noticed due to adrenaline. There were multiple instances of Eden being thrown or Godo stumbling when the Turk manipulated the ground under his feet. Everyone could only watch in amazement—very few, mostly the members of AVALANCHE and the Crescent Unit, could actually see more than a blur in the combatants' exchanges.

They kept up that pace of battle for several long moments until Godo made a sudden move which Summoned a being called Leviathan—and even Amestris had stories of a giant sea serpent attacking ships, despite them being a landlocked nation.

As Eden gaped at the huge serpentine entity, he also saw a wall of water rushing at him from out of nowhere—and his mind jumped to the Materia arrays for Gravity. Gravity controlled the tides, and he desperately needed to control _these_ tides, but Demi at any level wouldn't do what he needed it to do. No, he needed to reverse the gravity flow in Demi to break the wall of water heading for him—a stone wall, or even a dome, would only be a death trap at that point. (2)

He had no Materia on him!

Do or die, and some instinct pushed him to his next actions.

Holding his hand forward and focusing on the arrays for Demi 3, including the modifications for reversing the gravitational flow, he saw those arrays in his mind's eye—and saw them appear, array and sub-arrays, in glowing lines in the air around his wrist. There was no time for him to ponder what was happening right then, so just kept his mind on the effect he needed from them, causing them to brighten.

As the water hit him, the arrays flashed and the wave was severed neatly, even as an anti-gravitational bubble appeared around him, crushing the earth and stone below him as it propelled him upwards.

Eden hovered there, just like that, for over a minute as everyone stared in shock at him, but only a few of them noticed his own stunned surprise and cross-eyed expression. Leviathan howled with laughter, then vanished, and Godo began to chuckle after a moment as well, releasing his transformed state.

"I believe I have seen quite enough of your skill. Well done, Eden. It is hardly a wonder why you happen to be held in such high regard," the man said, causing the blond to blink—and the arrays to vanish suddenly, dropping the startled teen to the ground.

"...Yeah...How old is Leviathan to have that much power?" Eden asked, still looking a little perturbed.

"This particular Summon has been handed down from Emperor to Emperor for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years," the man smiled. "Shall we retire to the tea room, then?"

"That may be a good idea," the teen agreed, lifting his hand to blink at his now-normal wrist. Almost absently, he clapped and crouched to put his hands on the damaged ground, repairing the courtyard and getting many surprised and impressed whistles, then returned to staring at the wrist the arrays had appeared around.

Godo led Eden, Elfé, and Inagi back to the room they had begun in and they all took their seats again as Elfé passed his things back to him, then rested her hand on his shoulder and asked, "What just happened, Eden? What did you just do?"

The Turk's eyes moved to her as he said, "I've never had that happen before. I'm no expert on manipulating Gravity arrays, but right then, I knew I needed to use them, even without having the Materia on me. I didn't even close the circle to activate the effect, and the arrays have never appeared like that before—not to me, at least."

"Close the circle?" Godo asked with a puzzled expression.

Eden placed his palms together, his hands at ninety degree angles to his arms. "This motion represents a complete circle, and in my method of using arrays, it also closes the circle of energy flowing through my body to make them activate," he explained. "That's why I clap to make those things happen when I'm not using Materia. In the case of what just happened—I hadn't clapped first, and the arrays appeared in full form _outside_ my body, and not even imprinted on anything. Unless I draw an array, I had no idea that could even happen."

"And do you know what the effect you created was?" Inagi asked curiously.

"Yes—I was well aware I used Demi 3 and reversed its flow to push away from the center instead of towards it. That was what I needed to do to stop the tidal wave from hitting me," Eden explained. "I know every single change I made to the arrays and sub-arrays to do it, and what everyone saw was exactly what I was picturing in my mind as necessary components to create the effect I needed. Some of the other results, like my floating, rather took me by surprise because I'd only thought as far as pushing the wave away from me, but I understand that, too—I basically created an anti-gravity zone around my body. What I _don't_ understand is where the energy flow or the array representation came from."

"Is there someone you can ask about that?" Elfé asked, her eyes on the arrays still sitting on the table from earlier.

"The only one who comes to mind is Genesis," Eden sighed. "Mind you, given the topic, I could go right to him and he wouldn't really think anything of me asking him about that, because we trade off Materia-related information all the time. So you're aware of this, I have to report to Tseng tonight—this is the fourth day since I left Midgar and the first report I would be giving him."

"How much do you plan to tell him?" the Emperor asked curiously.

"Mainly about the two cases. I'll mention the incident just now only so he knows I'll also be in touch with Genesis. The rest is irrelevant to him at this point, especially since nothing's official," the Turk replied.

Godo nodded, then said, "Was there anything else in particular we needed to discuss?"

"The only thing that comes to my mind is that you should order Yufi's trainers to fight her properly and dump her on her ass if she's being careless or not keeping her training up to par," the blond answered with a raised brow. "She was completely disgusted by them at dinner after she specifically tested them and found that she could do next to nothing and they were obviously _letting_ her win. That's not going to help her skills as a—ninja, and it'll make her overly confident rather than assured of her power but also able to assess her opponent accurately."

The Emperor looked taken aback as Elfé and Inagi chuckled, but he said, "They should have been training her properly to begin with, as they have every other individual to take such training with them."

"Well, they aren't with her."

With a tired, exasperated nod, Godo said, "I will speak with them. You are correct to say she will be the one to be harmed should her training continue in this vein. If there is nothing else, I believe we should all retire for the evening."

"I'll be taking Eden with me tomorrow," Elfé said. "When should I meet you to discuss our new status with you, Emperor Godo?"

"Inform me once you have stabilized yourselves with a new name and new functionality," the man answered her with a small smile. "I will arrange a time to speak with you within a few days of being informed you are prepared to take up such a formal role—particularly if Eden is correct and said formal role will also apply to Shin-Ra."

She nodded and rose, saying, "That will be fine, then. Good night, Emperor Godo, Captain."

"Good night," Eden echoed as he also rose.

"Good night, Elfé, Eden," the Emperor returned, and Inagi nodded.

Elfé led the way from the room, then turned to the servant to request their rooms, so the servant showed them the way back. They reached Eden's room first, and he stepped inside with a tired sigh. It was much the same as earlier, with a short writing desk, a cushion to sit on at said desk, a table similar to the one they had sat around that evening with six cushions around it, a futon on a platform raised about a foot off the ground, and more than one device like dressers or wardrobes. This time, however, the futon wasn't folded into one corner of the platform, it was laid out flat with the top sheet and blanket turned down.

He plopped down on it and laid back, rubbing his eyes for a minute before he pulled out his PHS and dialed Tseng's number. The man answered with, "So, how are things looking so far? How was your trip?"

"It was fine," Eden answered, lips twitching in amusement. "We got to the capital around noon, and I just met with the head of the case here to discuss things. I gave them a better understanding of the Ravens and what they would be dealing with, and they've agreed to keep an eye out for Fuhito. The case here worries me, though, because it's someone actively using very primitive forms of arrays which aren't connected to Materia." With that, the teen explained the case he'd been presented with and the work required to fix it, leaving Tseng quiet for a few minutes afterwards.

Finally, the Wutain man said, "I think you should discuss that with Genesis, because the case here is array-based as well, and if there are such patterns also appearing in Midgar, he'll be able to see them as long as he knows to look."

"I needed to talk to Genesis, anyway, after my usual skills did something very unusual in the sparring match I had earlier. I figured he'd know what just happened and what it means," Eden agreed. "It would be way too unlikely for two nearly identical cases to be happening in Wutai and Midgar at the same time, though, and I couldn't call that coincidence, not if the arrays are anything like the primitive ones here. Actually, if the ones in Midgar are more sophisticated still, I'd technically be a lot more worried about those if the Reactors weren't there, but the set here being nearly complete..."

"It's fine, I'm not expecting you to try to fix our problem, especially since you've already got your hands full. Maybe they have some kind of link and we don't know it, or they may be completely unrelated, if oddly-timed, but I'm not going to act in fear when we _know_ nothing can be activated in Midgar. Your case _is_ getting people killed, so focus on stopping it. All I want you to do is make Genesis aware of some other possibilities. Getting back to your need to speak with him regardless, what _did_ happen?"

Eden gave a brief explanation, then said, "Because it's never happened to me before, I figured Genesis would be the one to ask."

"If he doesn't know, call me back and I'll go have a chat with my friend in the Slums. At the very least, she'll probably have an idea," Tseng offered. "In the meantime, it doesn't sound like you're worried, only confused, so I take that as a good sign."

The Turk had to chuckle as he said, "Thanks. Oh, there was one more thing, though—almost forgot in the weirdness here."

"...What's that?"

"I think the Emperor knows exactly who you are—he called you 'Ren'—" (The name produced a sharp intake of breath from Tseng.) "—and asked me to pass on a message to you. He wanted me to let you know he wished he had known and could have stopped what happened to you, and he wishes you well in your new life. Then, he said he doubts you'll ever take him up on it, but he'd gladly welcome you if you came for a visit sometime."

A long silence followed the words, then a sad-sounding sigh. "No, I won't be taking him up on it, not that I plan on, anyway, regardless of my work possibly taking me to Wutai. Apologize on my behalf and tell him I'm not the child he once knew, so I can't accept anything more than his well-wishes. And Eden, you have to say it to him exactly that way for him to understand my meaning."

"So I should say, 'Tseng says he apologizes, but he's not the child you once knew, so he can't accept anything more than your well-wishes'?" Eden blinked.

"Yes, that's it."

"Okay, that's simple enough. I'll pass it on to him, then."

"Thank you."

"No problem. I'll update you in a few days, then, unless Genesis can't help."

Both hung up, and Eden quickly found Genesis' number to dial it.

After several rings, Eden was about to hang up—only for the phone to be answered as Genesis commented, "It's got to be pretty serious for you to call me so soon after leaving, Eden."

For a moment, the Turk was stunned silent, but then he snorted and began chuckling as he said, "Nice greeting, Genesis. Did I interrupt you?"

"No, I just wasn't in a good place to talk privately right then. So, what's up?" the red haired man asked, and Eden heard a sound like him falling into something. Eden could guess it was a chair.

"Two things, one I had to talk with you about anyway, and the other Tseng wanted me to pass on to you."

"Start with Tseng's then."

"Out here, one of the cases involves someone using primitive arrays, but he's actually writing one into the city itself. There's the possibility that your case also involves someone writing an array into the city itself, so it might be to your benefit to see if you can see an array-based pattern and see where it's leading to so you can track the next likely locations and find out who's doing it."

"...That I can do. I'd never have thought of doing something on such a large scale before, but logically, it should be possible with enough planning and knowledge. Fine, I'll get started on that tomorrow morning. And the other reason you needed to talk with me?"

"I was in a duel earlier and didn't have my weapons or Materia on me. My opponent called up a tidal wave, and the only thing I could think of to protect myself from it was to use Gravity—but I didn't have the Materia on me, and didn't even close the circle. I knew exactly what arrays and sub-arrays I needed, and they appeared in a glowing form around my wrist while an anti-gravity bubble appeared around me. Do you have any idea what _that_ was all about?"

"Hmm..." Genesis murmured thoughtfully, then said, "Yes, and no." He paused for a moment before continuing, "Based on my own experiences with those arrays appearing, I'm fairly certain you just created a new 'spell' which is functional and acceptable to Minerva—as in, Materia-worthy acceptable, and I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing Materia with that base set of arrays popping up in a few years' time."

"...What?" Eden asked in puzzlement, sitting up and bracing his elbows on his knees as he stared blankly at the floor.

"I've had those arrays appear around my wrist before as well, namely when I created that holy purification spell I used on Nero. Alexander helped me power it, but he was really only acting in that capacity—the arrays and the functionality I needed was entirely my own. Of course, I was also doing something very close to Minerva's level of power, so I likely needed the extra power to actually make it work. That new set of arrays was semi-imprinted into Alexander's arrays, like a ghost array—much like the arrays for your disguise spell were in Mirage until you made them activate."

"Okay...and how does that relate to spell creation and Minerva's approval?"

"You were using arrays and sub-arrays, not the single one you normally use. I think part of her is worried about those kinds of arrays, so nothing about their functionality changes, but...using her arrays is like using Materia directly. Creating spells based on her arrays activates a somewhat different flow from an alchemic circle, which winds up being expressed in the glowing arrays around the wrist. I think those wouldn't appear if we tried to create something...say, destructive and with the intent to harm, taking away sub-arrays which would prevent it from being used exactly that way."

Eden was quiet for a moment as he thought about that, then said, "You mean, she allows us access to the arrays and the activation of those skills if she approves of how we're using them and the precautions we're taking with their functionality?"

"Basically. In my case, I think she helped me clarify them to do what I needed them to do as well. What exactly happened when you created the anti-gravity zone?" Genesis asked curiously, his tone exactly like Ed's when he'd found something new in alchemy to study.

"It broke the wave around me and propelled me off the ground in a hazy sphere."

"...Isn't that the same thing Float does?"

After a moment, the Turk blinked and said, "Wait a moment. Let me check the Float arrays and see how they differ from what I did—because there's got to be a difference or I would have realized what I was doing as soon as I did it."

"That's fine," Genesis agreed.

Setting down the PHS, the blond took the Float Materia off the bracer he still hadn't put back on, then slipped off one of his gloves and laid down, resting it on his chest before touching it. Like usual, he was drawn into the arrays, but as soon as he looked at Float's, he could tell it was different from what he'd done. Oh, it had similarities, but some of the key functions he'd been using were very different, so he started looking for exactly what he'd done. Soon after, he realized it and groaned as he broke contact with the shard, picking up his PHS to tell Genesis his findings.

"Hey..." he began with a sigh.

"Is something wrong?" the older man asked curiously.

"I guess that depends on your definition of 'wrong'," Eden answered.

"Well, what did you find?"

"Float has some elements of anti-gravitational arrays, but it's highly limited, especially in its versatility. Basically, it will never lift something higher than a certain height, never increase or decrease its pressure variables, and doesn't create a 'shield' so much as just indicating an area wherein objects or people will be affected. What _I_ did creates an actual barrier to deflect all sorts of damage and has none of those limits—and just to start, what happens if you take away height limits?"

"...Are you saying you just created a spell to _fly_ without wings?"

"Pretty much. I sort of think you're operating on that 'spell' at least partially because of the fact that you have only the one win—"

"I have one _visible_ one, but there _is_ actually another one there," Genesis cut him off.

Eden blinked, then stared and asked, "You have another one? What do you mean? And when did you find out?"

"Two days ago. I won't go into the details, but I wound up resorting to using my—wings, and when I landed, I thought maybe I should start getting used to them, so I actually explored them myself. I'd thought there was only one, but the opposite shoulder started to hurt and I reached back to massage it a bit, and my hand ran into...I guess I can't say it ran into something solid, but it was solid enough for me to feel intense energy against my fingers and trace it. I definitely had a second, invisible wing there, so I'm flying with two, not one."

"Well...That sure puts a spin on things..."

"Yes and no. I don't think it's actually that important, either, so let's just focus on the definitely important things—saving Elfé and saving the world."

"...Yeah. Thanks, Genesis."

 **Notes:**

(1) This is a Buddhist tool originally called a vajra by Tibetan monks, which the Japanese renamed a tokkosho. Obviously, he has no idea what this IS, because none of the Xingese characters ever used one, but Godo's transformed form DOES have one in one hand. Here's a link to see what one typically looks like—it would normally be held by the narrow section in the middle, hence Ed associating it with a barbell:

www. thoughtco vajra- or- dorje- 449881 (remove the spaces)

(2) Eden is reacting on the instinct of seeing a huge wall of water rushing towards him, not on an awareness that it's magical and probably can't kill him at his power and skill level, even though it would still do him damage. And it took me a LONG time to realize the implications of what his new spell is actually capable of, because free flight is really only the start of it. Anyone have any guesses on what this actually means?


	79. 77-Refuge

Refuge

Morning felt like it came too soon for Eden. As far as he knew, he was just going to be walking around with Elfé to meet her AVALANCHE members and some of the people they had rescued, so it wouldn't be a difficult day—but as soon as he felt the weight against his side, he knew things wouldn't be that easy. A look told him it was indeed Yufi who had joined him sometime during the night, causing him to heave a heart-felt and confused sigh. On the one hand, she supposedly hated him for being a Shinra agent, but on the other, she was pretty much attached to him at the hip.

A chuckle at the door made him look up at Elfé, who said, "It seems she's _very_ taken with you." Eden made a face at her, so she changed the subject with, "Since it's just my work today, you can dress down and relax a bit. The meals should be brought to our rooms soon, so you may want to get ready to head out."

"Sure, thanks," he replied, so she left, closing the door behind her.

He got up quietly and took his things to the bathroom attached to his room, bathing and dressing quickly, weapons included, as he left his hair down to dry a bit before putting it in a braid. When he stepped out of his room again, Yufi was gone and the servants were arriving with the morning meal. They were gone again a minute later, so he sat down to eat. By the time he was done, Elfé and Verdot had come to the door, so he quickly finished up and headed out with them as they led the way to the Chocobo stables—and the Chocobo he'd ridden the day before insisted he was going to ride it again. Everyone laughed as the Chocobos were saddled, and the three headed out.

As they were about to leave the Palace, Yufi came out of nowhere, jumping from above to land on the back of Eden's Chocobo with an 'a-ha!' He only barely got control of the squawking, hopping bird before he and Yufi were thrown off it (something he could only do because of his experience with horses), then turned to glare at her.

She gave an embarrassed chuckle and rubbed the back of her head as she said, "Oops, sorry. I forgot Chocobos don't like being jumped on that way..."

"And you did it _why_?" he asked crossly.

"Because I'm going with you!" the Princess announced.

Eden looked at Elfé and asked, "Is that even okay?"

"It's not really an issue of it being okay or not, it's that even her own father can't stop her, so the best we can do is keep her with us so she doesn't get hurt," Elfé answered with a shrug. "Also, secrecy isn't an issue, because I _know_ just how much she's never told anyone else of what she's heard us talk about. All-in-all, I think the Emperor will thank you if she stays attached to you, because he'll then know where she is, who she's with, and that she's safe."

"Fine...as long as she behaves," Eden replied with a sigh. Yufi just giggled, making him wonder if she even knew what 'behaving' _was_. Not that he was the greatest judge...

The first thing they did was ride out of Wutai City and to a village of a sort being built nearby in a mixture of different building styles. There were three very large buildings like apartments, and some smaller buildings—homes and shops—had been completed near them. The leader of AVALANCHE led the way to one of those big buildings and to a large meeting room on the ground floor of it, where a good two dozen AVALANCHE members had gathered. As soon as they saw Yufi, they collectively heaved resigned sighs, and as everyone found seats, Elfé took over the issues of housing, goods, materials, and food for the people they had brought there.

By the time she'd done that much, it was time for lunch, so food was brought in for them. Everyone ate, then Elfé presented them with the issue they had been discussing with the Emperor the previous evening. She managed to shorten it without losing the key points, then went right to determining their functions, how they would hide their alternative energy source research, and the fact that she, and they, would be renamed. Verdot was just as surprised as everyone else, Yufi was curious and fascinated, and Eden just looked amused by the various reactions.

"Elfé, I know we've been getting used to your birth name and all, but what _else_ could we call ourselves?" one of the members asked. "We've _always been_ AVALANCHE..."

"I was actually hoping people would offer up a list, we'd discuss the merits of each, and put it to a vote we could send to all our members," the woman said. "Since Eden and Yufi are here as well, they could offer name options, but they can't vote."

Eden's brow rose as the others traded thoughtful looks, but he asked Elfé, "Is it really wise to have non-members even give you input into this?"

"Besides the fact that the idea is yours and Inagi and the Emperor finalized it for me, I think we're past that point," she answered dryly. "No, the important part isn't where the ideas come from, it's what we think of the name we choose and the reason we're taking it. We need to all feel comfortable with that. So, what's your offer?"

"Call Aeris and ask her what she and Minerva think—that's my offer," he answered as dryly. The others all stared at him in surprise. "Or, I guess you'd have to call Shears and ask him to ask her, or I could ask Tseng. Your pick, but I would hope the Lifestream and Minerva would be pleased by all this and willing to offer something which will probably have merit."

Verdot chuckled and said, "After hearing that statement, I'm suddenly glad I've resigned."

"You already knew Tseng knew where Aeris was, so what's your problem?" Eden asked with a snort.

"Tseng never blatantly said he'd been meeting with her in front of me, so I could legitimately say I didn't know. You just negated that. Though, I am puzzled by why _you_ apparently know about her," the former Turk answered in amusement.

That was when it registered in Eden's mind—Verdot was showing emotion! Back when he'd been a Turk, Eden recalled never having seen emotion other than twice, minimally and for a very short time when he met Vincent again for the first time after twenty years and when he met his daughter again. He wondered if that was actually why the man looked so much better, the fact that he had his emotions back since reuniting with Felicia.

After a moment, the blond blinked and said, "Thank Tseng. We had things we needed to discuss, and he knows I'd never hand her over to someone like Hojo."

The older man made a 'hmm' sound, but before he could say anything, Yufi frowned and asked, "Wait a minute, how can you know about stuff like that or it even matter to you what Turks are doing or saying?"

All eyes went to the Princess, but Elfé commented, "I'm suddenly glad she's only nine." She got back several nods from others around the room.

"Hey!" Yufi scowled.

"Fine, if you're not interested in helping us come up with a name beyond telling us to ask Aeris and Minerva, you can go explore the community building up, Eden," the older woman said, waving the blond away.

"Sure. See you later, then," he agreed, getting up to leave. Yufi looked between him and Elfé for a minute before deciding to go after him.

"Who's Minerva?" the girl asked curiously as they stepped outside into the sun.

"That's the name of the consciousness of the Lifestream—basically, she's the Goddess of this world and the reason the Lifestream and life exist," Eden answered, picking a direction to start exploring in.

"People can't talk to the Lifestream."

"Aeris can—tested and proven."

Yufi froze for a moment to stare at him, then trotted after him to catch up, pointing out different things as they walked around. After about fifteen minutes, they were passing an area with buildings to one side and a wide, open, grassy field to the other. The girl pointed to the field as she said, "They want to put a park or garden there, but no one can decide what they really want to do with it. There will be kids coming here, though, so it would make sense to have a place where they can play."

"And, of course, so you could play there, too, right?" he asked dryly, and she giggled.

"Of course! I have to have a place to play everywhere, or I'll practice my ninja skills instead!" the girl answered with a wide grin.

"I figured," he shrugged.

"Hey, it's _her_ again!" a new voice said darkly, and as a sort of hush fell, Eden and Yufi turned to face the speaker. There were five boys around eleven and twelve standing at a corner they had just passed, all of them obviously angry.

Looking down at the girl, the Turk asked, "Okay, so what did you do _this_ time, Princess?"

"Nothing!" she answered, but she looked nervous.

"Liar! You stole the money we were trying to save up to help get our parents a shop!" another of the boys answered angrily. He seemed to be the oldest of them.

Sighing, the blond said in a warning tone, "Yufi..."

After a moment, she scowled and said, "Fine, I took it! You know what it went to? Making sure the Wutain soldiers could get medicine on the frontline—because without them, you wouldn't even _have_ a place to stay right now!"

Holding a hand to his suddenly aching head, Eden listened to the oldest boy snarl, "It doesn't matter! It wasn't yours to take!"

"But they—" the girl began.

"Yufi!" Eden cut her off sharply, making her look up at him with a glare. "Do you really think what _you_ want is more important than what _they_ want? Do you really think you have the right to commit crimes and get away with it?"

"The soldiers need it more than the civilians do until the war is over!" she glared.

"If your father thought that, all he'd have to do is raise the taxes!" Eden snarled back at her, and she stared at him in shock. "He has _legal_ ways of gaining funds if he feels they're necessary, and the fact that he _hasn't_ means he doesn't feel those funds are necessary! By taking that money, you're nothing more than a petty thief, regardless of your reasons—and you _are_ going to pay it back to them. Now."

"But I don't have—"

"You have money, and lots of it—no elite or royal child ever goes without an allowance. So tell me this...is all of _your_ allowance going to the frontlines for medicine, or only the money you _steal_ from others?"

The pause and guilt on her face told him all he needed to know, even before she whined, "But that's the whole allowance I've been saving for a _year_."

"And how do you think _they_ feel after saving up that much money, just to lose it to a thief?" Eden asked with a pointed look. "What you feel right now at the thought of giving it up—but worse, because _you_ never gave them a choice or any warning or anything."

"I'm the Princess! I can do what I want!" she finally yelled, hands clenched into fists.

The blond Turk raised a brow, said, "Actions have consequences," and caught one of her wrists to drag her forward as he knelt on one knee. She yelped as he threw her over his bent knee, then he brought his hand down firmly on her rear (1).

"Ow! Stop it!" she yelled, struggling to get away—and quickly finding that she couldn't as he spanked her firmly four more times with carefully restrained force, her yelping each time. By the fourth, she was actually crying and a few other people had come to see what was going on.

After the fifth strike, Eden sighed and rested his hand on her back for a minute before saying, "Five strikes, one for each boy you stole from. Princess or not, laws exist for a _reason_. If stealing is wrong for civilians, it's wrong for _you_ as well. Actually, if anything, it's even _more_ wrong for you to do it, because you're setting an example for all your people by your actions, and if you take stealing as something that's just fine to do, so will they."

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!" she wept, just staying draped over his knee.

Taking pity on her, he pulled her up and into a hug, which she returned as she wept on his shoulder instead. He finally realized how many people had come to see what was going on because of the noise she'd been making, but wasn't sure what to make of their expressions, because even though most of them looked uncomfortable, the kids looked shocked and most of the adults looked understanding. Apparently, some of the parents were actually the parents of the boys who had confronted them, as they were ushered away by said parents as the crowd 'pointedly dispersed', mainly leaving them alone on the street.

Finally, some time later, Yufi stopped crying and said tiredly, "I'm really sorry, but I actually don't have any money on me, it's all back at the Palace. I have to go back before I can do anything with it..."

"That's fine, as long as you actually pay it back—and don't do it again," he answered. "Now listen to me. For this crime, you've been disciplined, and it can be set aside once it's paid back. You don't need to be disciplined again for stealing—unless you steal again after this. I hope you won't, because it's pretty obvious you're not used to actually being disciplined for doing wrong. All you need to do now is learn not to repeat the same mistake again."

"...It's really strange for a Turk to discipline me for doing wrong when that's almost all the Turks do..."

Eden had to snort at the point. "Yes, Turks have to do things which are technically 'wrong', but we _don't_ like it. The difference here is that most of what we do is direct retaliation for an act already committed, such as recovery of data or items which were stolen—which isn't a crime to start with—or murdering a terrorist who has killed a lot of people. Of course, in the latter, it's still murder, but society would collapse if serial murderers or torturers or rapists weren't stopped, which still means committing a murder to stop them if they've shown they won't change. Turks are a strange bunch, though—we'll knowingly commit one crime so we can refrain from committing another, worse one."

For a long moment, the Princess was quiet, but then she looked up at him slowly and asked, "Is that why Elfé likes you?"

Eden shrugged. "I think she likes me because I'm even willing to save the life of a 'so-called' enemy without revealing their secrets unless lives are on the line."

"Oh..." Her head dropped back to his shoulder for several more minutes before she wiped her face and carefully sat back from him, then rose to her feet and rubbed her rear with her hands. "It's weird...I can get hurt worse than this in training or something stupid I did, but somehow—this hurts more."

Standing, the blond teen asked in reminiscent amusement, "Is it your butt that hurts, or is it your pride and your ego?" Oh, yes, his mother had spanked him, too, at times, and he knew what hurt far more wasn't the spanking, it was his parent's disappointment.

Yufi blinked, then made a small face and said, "Maybe some of that, but mostly, it's because...I mean...it hurts most that you're so disappointed in me, and I can't imagine what my father will think...I still can't figure out why a Turk's opinion means so much to me, though..."

"Because you've just seen first-hand that Turks actually _do_ know the difference between right and wrong. And I'm sure you've realized by what I said before that none of us are trying to justify our crimes. We know full well it's wrong, and we're making a conscious decision to do it or not, with or without an order. _You_ always tried to find some way to make it 'not be a crime' when you did it, which only added to the crimes you were committing with lying, something _else_ you knew very well you were doing which was wrong." He stretched his arms above his head, then dropped them and said, "Anyway, after that, we should probably just head back to the AVALANCHE building."

"...Okay..." the nine-year-old girl agreed quietly, joining him for the walk back.

Even though they'd only been away for about an hour, Elfé and two other members of the group were sitting at a small table in the lobby when they got back, PHS's in their hands as they checked them. The woman looked up at them with a puzzled frown as she commented, "You weren't gone long. What's wrong?"

"We ran into some people in town who had a bone to pick with Yufi, that's all," Eden shrugged. "It was unpleasant, so we figured it was best to come back here. Have you got a place she can rest for a bit?"

Yufi stared up at him in surprise, and while Elfé saw the expression, she chose to say instead, "The room over there has a couch and isn't being used right now." She pointed to the second door down the hall from the lobby, so the Princess headed for it, covering a yawn as she went. When the door closed behind the girl, Elfé asked, "Eden, what happened that was bad enough for you to cut short a walk on a nice day?"

He gave his head a shake. "I know better. If I tell you, it'll come up again to her, and it's done. She still has to face her father, and that will be more than enough. Unless she tells you herself, it ends here."

For a minute, the woman just gazed at him, then nodded and said, "Very well. We've sent out the potential new names and are just waiting for the vote back—I'd thought it would take longer, but Shears was with Aeris when I called him, so we got her and Minerva's offer quickly. Members only offered about ten names—all legitimately good ones, at that—themselves, and their reasonings were all sound, but I just have a feeling about which name we'll get back in the end."

"Which one?" Eden asked curiously.

"The one from Aeris and Minerva, but I won't tell you any of the names until we get our totals back." Elfé and the two members with her looked amused, even as all three kept checking the PHS's they held and making notes on the papers in front of them.

Eden blinked, then gave a wry grin and said, "Okay, that's fine."

He then found a place to sit and wait in the lobby, but not at their table, as he was pretty sure the names were written on the sheets the three of them were putting marks on. By the time they'd gotten back about eighty percent of the members' responses, Yufi had rejoined them in the main room, sitting beside Eden with her arms wrapped around her knees. Elfé and the other two totaled the votes and traded amused looks as they saw the results.

She then looked up at the Turk and Princess and said, "It was Aeris and Minerva's offer."

"Which is?" he asked curiously.

"Gaia's Refuge (2)," she answered, a small, amused smile on her lips.

After a surprised blink, Eden laughed, making Yufi ask with a puzzled frown, "What's Gaia's Refuge mean?"

"Gaia is the actual name of the Planet, and a refuge is a safe place for people and-or animals to retreat to if they're in danger," Eden explained. "It works for what they're making AVALANCHE into, since it's basically Minerva's legacy to protect her people, her world, and herself." He then looked up at the brown haired woman and asked, "So, do I have to try to remember to call you Felicia now?"

"You should start getting used to it," she answered. With a wry grin, she went on, "The name change was completed faster than expected—I was expecting to finalize all the rest of the data and changes another day. As things stand, we can now go back to planning the details. Unfortunately, that's probably going to mean a late night for us all. If you'd like to head back to the Palace with Yufi, you're welcome to."

"Are you off your rocker? Tseng would kill you for having me wander around without you at my back," the Turk snorted, expression amused. "I mean, you _are_ talking about the guy who marched into your hideout to demand exactly that."

Her lips twitched, but she nodded. "Do you think it would be advantageous to let the Turks and SOLDIERs know of the change before it happens, or should we surprise them with it?"

"Tseng would have a better idea of how advantageous or not that would be, because it could go either way. It's more like—there's specific people who need to know ahead of time so they can vouch for you, like Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal."

"Do me a favor and ask him, then. We'll sort out our plans while you're determining who should know what, when, how, and why."

He raised a brow as she and the other two members left with their papers to go back to their meeting room, but pulled out his PHS.

"It's really weird seeing AVALANCHE work with the Turks," Yufi pouted.

Eden chuckled as he waited for Tseng to answer, which he did shortly with a, "I sincerely hope you're not calling me because a disaster happened."

"No, this is on Elfé's behalf. She'd like your opinion on how we should go about spreading the existence of Gaia's Refuge."

"Of what?" the other man asked in confusion, so Eden explained to him the bare-bones of the plan as it stood. Tseng was quiet for a minute before releasing a deep sigh. "First of all, keeping it within the Turks is fine, and we'll let Rufus know. Your idea to have the General and Commanders' support is also good. I would be inclined to add to that Reeve, since his department would actually be making the most use of their skills, and if he's already testing them when the rest of Shinra finds out, they have more clout and backing than if no one amongst the Executives knows."

"Oh, I'd never have thought of him, but you're right. Thanks, I'll let her know."

"Just—don't get into trouble, Eden..." Tseng's words made the blond laugh.

CA

It was very late when they got back, and all of them wound up going right to bed as soon as they got back to the capital, even Yufi, who usually had the most energy of them. Ed was then woken quite early to eat and get ready for the outing he'd planned already with Inagi, so ate and dressed in his Turk uniform quickly, then followed the servant to a carriage where the Captain and a few others waited. El—Felicia joined them soon after, stifling a yawn as she did. Once they sat in the carriage, which was being pulled by two Chocobos, Inagi showed them a map of Wutai and their route.

"After examining the diagrams you gave us the other day, we realized we could visit several of those key locations on the way too and from some of our important sights," the Crescent Unit Captain explained. "Of them, there are four where you may be able to do something to break the circle without being noticed. The only unexpected problem is that our anticipated route could take longer than a full day unless each stop winds up being fairly short—as short as it can be and still give us decent time to show you each of them properly."

"So unless things run really smoothly, we'll be back after dark, you mean?" Eden asked tiredly. "Geez, no wonder I didn't want to go into politics. If people at that level wind up with late nights every night, I definitely don't want to make a habit of it."

Inagi snorted and Felicia chuckled. "Well, the only way we could shorten the time would be if you openly say you've seen enough once the initial data of each site has been given to you," the man offered. "Since you're a Turk and trained for rapid assessment of data, it would be feasible for you to have 'seen' everything you need to in the time we're telling you about the site."

"That would really help," the blond teen grinned.

As it turned out, the day actually went quite well, even without adding Ed's 'rapid assessment' to the situation—which they found out he really had done at each site, regardless. They had a total of ten stops, four of those the ones where Eden had to break the circle and the other six actual sights of interest which happened to correspond with the paths to the four points on the circle. In each place, it didn't take long for the Turk to figure out how to break the circle, mainly because the method was to turn the stone blocks into small bricks which could easily be moved in a cart and dumped somewhere. At the same time, he deliberately put up or took down walls on the path of the circle to break it via the circle itself, and one of the four points was one of the key circle anchors, so breaking that one would absolutely break the circle. The rest—moving the bricks, since he'd used his alchemy to fill in the holes he would have left with surrounding stone—was up to the Wutain people.

 **Notes:**

(1) Like it or not, Ed grew up in a day and age where kids _were_ spanked when they did wrong, and stealing qualifies as 'wrong'. That he only gave her five, fully clothed and really not that hard, doesn't qualify as 'child abuse'. There is a huge difference between disciplining a child and abusing them, and I never thought I was being abused just because my mother or father spanked me as a kid—the inability to spank kids these days is a huge part of the reason why so many of them go so bad, because no one is enforcing rules on them. This is also the only time in the story where this should happen (I'm generally counting part 2 in that as well). Unless something really changes between now and the end of the story, the most that'll happen is 'implied' spanking, but nothing this obvious, and I doubt much implied spanking will happen (only once that I know of to date).

If anyone thinks Ed wouldn't care if she stole things, it would be good to remember that he never stole anything himself in the whole FMA:B/manga series, and he loathes thieves (I'm sure Paninya didn't help his opinion of them). The most he did was trick someone into willingly giving up ownership of something—not to him, but to someone who deserved it or who it had originally belonged to. The Turks are more likely to capture or kidnap someone/thing living (no, not good things and largely due to Hojo) than they are to steal something, as they're generally sent in to RECOVER stolen data or goods produced by Shinra, not take something of someone else's. There is also NO evidence anywhere in FFVII of the Turks 'stealing' things, only of forcing the person to hand the item to them (again, still not good, but still not 'stealing' by the definition of the term). So yes, Eden WOULD care that she stole and would want to break her of the habit as quickly as he could.

(2) It took me months to figure out the new name of the group, and this actually wasn't my first choice, which made it harder. If you're wondering, my first choice got appropriated by one of my original works, and I didn't think it would be fair to either if I used it in both my original and this one. As such, Gaia's Refuge is Felicia and Shears' group under new terms and AVALANCHE now doesn't have a role in my story, since I doubt Fuhito was actually attached to it. With 80% replies, that sort of means Gaia's Refuge got over 50% of the total possible votes, so even if the other 20% voted (and didn't vote for Gaia's Refuge), it wouldn't move Gaia's Refuge out of that spot.


	80. 78-Array Devastation

**A/N:** From this point on, Elfé will be known as Felicia and AVALANCHE will be known as Gaia's Refuge, other than in very rare circumstances (this includes in Part 2, both versions).

Array Devastation

"Does this mean we'll be back in time for supper?" Eden asked Inagi hopefully as Wutai City came into view about an hour before sunset.

"It does," the Captain agreed in mild amusement.

Soon after, they had passed through the city, and it was rapidly approaching sunset. When they returned to the Palace, Inagi led them back to their rooms—which were side-by-side anyway—only for them to see Verdot sitting outside the door to his daughter's room. The man blinked in momentary surprise, then asked in amusement, "How long did you need to spend at each site?"

"About half an hour," Eden answered, and the older man nodded.

"Well, then, I suppose we'll need a servant to bring us a private supper," Verdot commented. "Should we stay in Felicia's room to eat or go over to Eden's?"

"Eden's. I think he'll want to go to bed early tonight," the young woman answered.

With that statement, Eden yawned suddenly, even shocking himself, so they moved to his room and Inagi left to tell the kitchen staff to take them some supper. They ate fairly quietly, and after the servants had taken away the dishes, they quietly discussed some things about the situation in general and how Verdot was doing since resigning.

About half an hour after they finished their meal, the door was thrown open and Yufi ran in, her expression one of angry tears as she went right to Eden and threw her arms around his neck to cry on his shoulder. After a moment of shock, the blond teen wrapped his arms around her, wondering what had brought that on, but it was pretty obvious she couldn't talk right away. Felicia got up and closed the door Yufi had left open when she'd run in, then returned to her seat to wait for the girl to stop crying so they could find out what was wrong. It took the Princess about half an hour to stop, but she didn't lift her head from the Turk's shoulder.

"He doesn't even _care_!" Yufi burst out, the words muffled a bit by the fact that she still hadn't pulled away from him.

"Who doesn't care about what?" Eden asked in mild confusion.

"My father!" she answered, shaking her head against his shoulder. "He doesn't care about what I did, he didn't even _try_ to tell me it was wrong or discipline me, he wasn't even _disappointed_! He just didn't _care_! He doesn't care! I'm going with you when you leave, because at least you _care_!"

Eden was torn between sorrow and horror at her words, and Felicia and Verdot were torn between amusement and shock, but he finally sighed and said, "I'm sorry to hear he reacted so...flatly. But will your father really just let you walk right into the heart of Shinra territory?"

"I don't actually care. I don't think _he_ will, either. It's not like I have a guard or anyone watching over me (1), either, who might have cared more because they'd have had to go with me," she answered angrily.

"Wait—El—er—Felicia, she really just doesn't have a guard _at all_?" the blond asked in dawning horror as he looked up at the woman.

She shook her head. "No, she doesn't. Come to think of it, I don't think she ever has, though a guard would have probably kept her out of at least _some_ of the trouble she's gotten into. Now that you mention it, that's very strange, especially in light of the fact that Rufus always had to find ways to ditch _his_ guards to meet with us."

Nodding, the Turk agreed, "I don't think he actually 'meant' harm by that, but he apparently became disassociated from Yufi by not establishing some form of contact with her. At this point, I don't think that bridge could ever be fully repaired."

"I don't think the Princess is inclined to _try_ ," Verdot put in, and Yufi gave a snort.

"If he doesn't care about me, why should I care about him?" she asked bitterly.

"Except you _do_ care, Yufi," Eden told her quietly, and she went very still against him. "That's why it hurts so much that he _doesn't_ care—or, at least, that he doesn't care _enough_. From what I've seen of him, I think he _does_ care, but he doesn't know how to show a child that, only how to lead and rule a large group of people (2). It doesn't change what you feel now, but I'm not entirely sure you'll still want to come with us when we leave, so we'll see what happens when the time comes," he explained.

She nodded against his shoulder, so he added, "Just seriously take the time to think about what it will mean if you leave here. Your life will be completely different—no one will treat you like a Princess, like someone important, you'll have to learn a completely new way of living, and because I'll be working, I won't get to spend much time with you. The best we could hope for is for you to go to Shinra Academy and make friends with other students there, and for me to visit you when I'm not working." She nodded again.

"The President may also use her as a hostage," Felicia put in.

Verdot answered, "It's more likely he'd take her as a good-will gesture, especially if you don't return with her until _after_ the Emperor presents the proposal you told me about to the President. In that case, she may retain some form of status, but that would also mean she couldn't just run around randomly—she'd have to have some form of guard to stop other terrorists or criminals from targeting her."

"She needs a guard, anyway, since that's apparently the only way she'll stop just up and vanishing on whoever's watching over her," the Turk said dryly, and Yufi snorted.

"Whatever," she said in a flat voice. "I'll think about it, but I don't think I'll change my mind because it's, like, the Turks and the terrorists who actually _care_ more about me than my own father does."

"We'll see when it's closer to time to leave," Eden told her in mild amusement.

With her agreement and lack of movement, he knew she was going to stay with him for the night, so resigned himself to that fact, much to Felicia and Verdot's amusement.

CA

The next several days were fairly quiet, with the Turk being shown around various areas and putting more holes in the circles the person was trying to complete, his only issue being the fact that Yufi was sticking to him like glue. It was on the seventh day after the Princess had declared her intention to go back to Shinra with him that anything of note happened—and then, it was just chance he was near the location with Inagi and Felicia (and Yufi) when it did. They were passing close to the last likely spot on the final array to complete it when screaming sounded and people fled the area as smoke rose.

"Oh, that's trouble all right," Eden commented as Inagi yelled for the driver to stop the carriage.

All of them were out and running for the trouble spot as they pushed through the crowds fleeing the area, and reached it in time to see two Wutain men with knives cutting open a younger Wutain man they'd pinned down—on a primitive array. With a hiss, the Turk jumped at them as he drew his sword, tapping into the illusion stones on his blade to create a wind to force them back. The effect knocked them down, and Eden turned his attention to the array and the injured man laying on it, casting his strongest healing spell (still only Cure 2, because Regen was an over-time heal and he didn't need it then). The man's injuries were mostly tended by that, and Inagi pulled him off the array as Ed clapped his hands together and put them down on the ground to re-write the array there, making it into gibberish.

The blond teen faced the two men, who were pushing themselves up with snarls as Inagi finished the healing on the injured man. The two criminals jumped at the blond who had interfered with them, and as Eden met the two in combat, he realized they were actually quite skilled in that regard—certainly much better than they were with alchemy. Felicia joined him within moments to make the fight a two-on-two, and both men were also using Materia to support them, leading to both non-Wutains doing the same.

He already knew Wutains were strong, but these ones seemed _too_ strong, and the fight was harder than expected. It didn't take him long to decide to put some distance between him and his opponent, then to activate the stone hands he liked to use to capture criminals. Both men tried to dodge as a startled Felicia jumped back, only for the two Wutains to find the hands bending to follow them. They were grabbed and quickly realized they were going to have a very hard time getting free, if they even could at all.

At that moment, a familiar voice snarled, "You!" and Felicia was between his back and the man who had come up from behind them.

It only took him a moment to finish turning to face Fuhito, but by then, Felicia was falling to her knees, her sword severed a third of the way from the top.

The blond Turk saw red as he crouched beside the woman and saw the laser wound through her chest, that time trying to cast Full Cure on it, but it had very little effect. Currently, there weren't many laser weapons in the world, and healing spells had only just begun to adapt to them, so laser wounds were nearly impossible to heal. The only thought in his mind right then was that Felicia was going to die, and Fuhito was going to pay for it. A sense that he wasn't alone in that feeling or thought came to him.

Fuhito snarled again and took aim one more time, but Eden was through playing with him, and he was suddenly surrounded by a vortex of green-white light as he looked over at the man and evoked something he'd never heard or read before: "Bastion of Minerva, Ark of the Ethereal, come forth!"

Every one of the Summons he had slotted on him materialized (Shiva, Ifrit, Titan, Ramuh, Odin, Alexander, Sylph, and Carbuncle) and most shot at Fuhito to attack him. A few performed other actions, such as Sylph and Carbuncle swirling around Felicia to heal and protect her and Alexander sending out a shock wave of holy energy like wings (3) which swept over the area, helping to heal the woman as it struck out at enemies. All of the actions the Summons performed were different from what they did when summoned normally, from Odin to Sylph.

With the input from the three Summons, the burnt hole through Felicia's chest shone with light and repaired itself, even as the other Summons found their attack on the Wutain man being waylaid by Ravens, who were eerily durable. There was, in the back of his mind, a realization that some of the Ravens seemed to have 'feathery' hair and their movement was smoother, but beyond that and the medium gray, SOLDIER-like uniforms they wore, he registered nothing else about them.

The man screamed at one point in the ensuing chaos of the descent of the Ravens on the scene and he could have sworn he saw something shadowy and black surrounding the man (where had he seen something like that before?)...But when the Summons finished with those walking next-thing-to-corpses, there was no sign of Fuhito or a body. The Summons began dissolving once the threat had been neutralized, and Eden felt dizzy suddenly.

"The bastard got away again..." the Turk murmured—only for darkness to swallow him up as he vaguely felt himself falling...

CA

When he woke, Eden felt exhausted to such a degree that he couldn't even lift his hand. At first, he wasn't sure where he was, knowing only that it was a Wutain building, but not recognizing the room as his at the Palace. Of course, right then, he didn't have the strength to turn his head, so he sort-of sighed—only to find Verdot leaning over him.

The man told him quietly, "Go back to sleep. Felicia is safe and healthy thanks to you, Fuhito has..." The very first thing the man had said was what Eden most needed to hear, and he was already asleep again before he heard any more.

Opening his eyes however long it was later, the blond Turk found himself awake and aware, so sat up and looked around, seeing Yufi and Felicia both sitting at a small table nearby with—Angeal and Zack near the door whispering to each other? Yes, it was them, but he was really, really confused about what they were doing there.

"You're awake!" Yufi suddenly cried, and he found himself wrapped in a nine-year-old Wutain girl before he could blink.

"Dad said you woke last night briefly," Felicia said quietly as she moved over to sit beside him and Angeal and Zack also made their way over. "I've never seen anything like that before—you have one impressive Limit Break, though I don't envy you the resulting exhaustion. Thank you—I know Fuhito's laser weapons, and most healing spells can't undo their damage at this point, but evoking Minerva apparently increased the healing abilities of the Summons exponentially."

"...That was a Limit Break?" Eden asked in surprise. "I just know I saw red and invoked something I'd never seen or heard before."

"That's how it works for most people," Angeal told him with a faint grin as Zack gave him a friendly wave and smile. "I remember that was what happened when I got my first one when I thought Genesis and Sephiroth had been killed in an explosive set by some terrorists back some years ago, before we realized how durable we are. But if Felicia, the Princess, and the Captain are to be believed, you invoked something easily defined as 'epic'. By the way...exactly what's the story with Felicia?"

The blond's brow rose and he asked, "She didn't tell you she's the leader of the autonomous group called Gaia's Refuge?"

"Oh, no, I know that part—Reeve even called her yesterday to give her people some work in Shinra's territory—but why did she effectively give her life to protect yours?" the man asked, his brow raised.

"Because Tseng would have killed her anyway if she didn't protect me," the young Turk snorted, and Angeal stared for a moment before bursting out laughing. While he was, Eden mouthed 'thank you' to her, and she gave a nod and small smile. "So...why are the two of you here, and exactly where is 'here'?" the teen asked once the older man had stopped laughing.

Yufi let him go to say, "This is the Medical Wing in the Palace. You were so tired they were worried you'd just fade away, so they were feeding you energy for almost two days. El—Felicia and her dad had to answer the phone when that Tseng guy called you, and boy was he pissed!"

Zack chuckled and added, "You should have seen the expression on Felicia's face at whatever he was saying—he was _yelling_! Unfortunately, it was in Wutain, but I know you Turks are great at being threatening."

Eden sighed. "Geez, that guy..." He then looked up at the brown haired woman and asked, "He wasn't too hard on you, was he?"

"Dad took the phone from me and walked out to talk with him," she answered. "I don't know how that went, but when Dad handed it back to me, he apologized for his behavior and hung up."

"...What did he say?" the blond Turk asked apprehensively.

Felicia shrugged. "The usual, 'you failed so I'm going to make you pay.' And he said he'd need to put you under lock and key. But then, he also said something about needing a guard for _me_ because I'm as high-maintenance as _you_ are, and having a Turk say something like that to me is...unsettling."

Making a face, the blond Turk replied, "I'm not sure if I should be grateful for or worried about that, but it's good if he apparently cares enough to both scold you for failing _and_ for getting hurt." His gaze went to the SOLDIERs. "But why are the two of _you_ in the Palace?"

"Apparently, the Emperor sent the President a proposal, and President Shinra was interested in it, so sent us to chat with the Emperor on his behalf," Angeal answered. "They've been quite hospitable and not terribly surprised by our presence. How do you have free passage here as a uniformed Turk, though?"

"Felicia wanted my help with a case here at the same time Tseng wanted to send me to track Fuhito down, and being the leader of A—Gaia's Refuge, she could grant me passage, but she had to at least tell the Emperor who I was. He decided to take me as a good-will ambassador from Shinra and _expected_ me to be in uniform. After all, I was helping them with a case, despite being a Turk, and all I wanted in exchange was the ability to track down a known criminal," Eden explained in amusement.

"Only you, Eden, only you," Angeal sighed in amusement.

"I'm confused about why Fuhito was in the same place as those criminals you were after right then, though," Zack threw in suddenly.

Eden stared at him, so Angeal said, "They told us the bare-bones of the case because we saw them carry you in for care—we were just getting here then."

The blond pursed his lips with a small nod, then looked at Felicia, who nodded and said, "The men you captured told the Captain that Fuhito had shown an interest in the arrays, especially when using a few of them turned out to be a fast way to create more Ravens—how true that is, we aren't quite sure, but back to the Ravens...The ones who were there that day were supposedly the result of his new version of experiments, and they showed you were right to be worried about him making them more efficient and mobile in combat. None of us are really sure what that means, but we know your description of the Ravens, so we were hoping you could tell us."

"Shit!" Eden snarled. "Just what I didn't want—that bastard knowing how to use arrays, primitive or not!" He punched the wall beside him as the others stared, but the door opened right then to admit Inagi and the Emperor.

After a startled moment at the blond's anger, Godo said, "It is good to see you awake, Eden. Have the others been able to fill you in?"

"Fuhito knowing the arrays those guys were using, you mean? Yeah, I got that," the Turk sighed, shaking his head.

"Do you feel up to explaining?" the Captain asked.

"Should we go?" Angeal asked tactfully, motioning towards himself and Zack.

"Fuhito is one of your wanted criminals, so there is no need," the Emperor told the man, shaking his head a bit before looking back at Eden.

"I mentioned human transmutation to you, right?" the blond asked the Captain and Emperor. Both nodded, so he went on, "While healing falls under that category, there are plenty of other things which also do, and—there are some arrays meant to mix together two unrelated things. For example, think of what it would be like if humans could freely create monsters like Harpies, only by combining any desired number and type of monster between two and seven." The others' expressions became horrified with dawning realization, so he finished the thought process. "Now, imagine being able to mix those monsters with a human, creating a fully sentient and aware monster which has every reason to hate the world, just for the agony the forced mixing causes. _That's_ what they've given Fuhito, an army of what we called chimeras back home."

"Great Leviathan..." Godo breathed in horror, shaking his head slowly. "He just becomes more and more dangerous. Perhaps our agreement with Shinra is truly for the best in light of all this..." Inagi and Felicia both nodded in agreement.

"Is there any way to stop someone who has both the skill and lack of morals to do that?" Felicia asked quietly.

Angeal told her, "Only by finding and killing him, something easier said than done with people like Fuhito and Hojo, just for the very fact that they're so unpredictable. It wouldn't really surprise me to find they had used themselves in their own experiments, either."

A sudden recollection made Eden look up to Yufi, Felicia, and Inagi as he asked, "Did you happen to see anything odd about Fuhito when the Summons attacked him and he screamed in pain? I have a vague memory of a black shadow, but I wasn't fully aware then, so I need to know if I was just seeing things or that really happened."

It was Inagi who said, "I saw the shadow you mean. It seems to have some sort of inky-black form which was able to grasp and re-direct most of the damage the Summons should have been able to do to him. Whatever it was, it wasn't natural, and while it wasn't quite able to re-direct _all_ the damage, it kept him alive with only superficial wounds. If he's gone so far as to effectively turn himself into a demon, he'll find no allies in this world beyond others of his own ilk."

"...I see..." Eden sighed, reaching up to rub his head. "That really sounds familiar somehow...What has he gotten into...?"

"What's 'familiar'?" several of the others asked worriedly.

"...I need some time to think on things. Just...don't take him on carelessly, without having an escape plan in place, because I don't think he's 'just' Fuhito anymore...And we _know_ that shadow is nothing to scoff at. Killing him will be nearly impossible until we know what it is and how to fight it."

The warning left the others feeling unsettled, but they gave their agreement, then told him to rest again while the others made their own plans.

CA

Later that day, Eden had recovered enough to put his bracers on again, finding that the one with the four Zirconaide shards was especially active for some reason. Turning his mind to them, he 'pushed open the doors' to their shards and asked all four, _:What's the matter? You normally just watch quietly.:_

 _:_ He _,:_ the angry one replied with venom, but stopped there. The rage one was still seething so badly it didn't say a word.

Ed drew a blank, so the logical one explained, _:The cold one nearly destroyed us with the human our last is bound to.:_

 _:Oh. Then it's a good thing my Limit Break allowed her to heal,:_ he sighed.

 _:Apologies about that,:_ the logical one answered.

 _:...What?:_ the Turk asked in confusion.

 _:We used the energy of your Limit Break to activate_ our _'Limit Break', if you will. What you did was so harmful to you because it was never yours. I believe your Limit Break would normally have created a—flurry of spikes from all directions, somewhat like a cage in stone or metal or both? Perhaps like an iron maiden?:_ the depressed one replied.

After a silence to assess the words, the blond asked, _:So does that mean it'll be awhile before I see my own Limit Break?:_

 _:Now that it has activated, it should continue to activate on a cycle based on the degree of damage you take in battle, or with another surge of emotion. The more damage you take, the more often it will activate. You will also learn new ones,:_ the logical one informed him.

 _:I see,:_ he answered. _:Thank you for letting me know I won't pass out every time I reach my Limit Break, anyway. We'll see what the actual effect will be when it next activates. Did you see any extra details about Fuhito?:_

 _:No more than you did,:_ the depressed one sighed. _:Though the entity bound to him is very powerful, more than it should be. It is difficult to determine its actual power with such a brief—interaction—with it.:_

 _:Pity. I think I may know what it is, but I need more time to think on it. In the mean time, you aren't the only ones I need to speak with right now, so if that's as resolved as it can be, I'll leave you with the note that eventually, we're going to catch him and kill him,:_ Eden informed them. With their agreement, he 'closed the doors' to their shards again and turned his thoughts to the other issue he needed to address that day.

 **Notes:**

(1) No, Yufi doesn't have a guard, because she'd have never been able to get away with even a quarter of the stunts she pulled from the time her mother died and on, even if she'd managed to get away from a bunch of Ninja-trained people.

(2) There are several things Godo has done in the FFVII Compilation which make me think he has the same short-comings as most leaders, good or otherwise—he's a fantastic leader and has a great deal of legitimate wisdom, but his 'wisdom' doesn't extend to his family. The fact that Yufi ever got away with stealing and apparently never had a guard watching over her are two key points in why I say this. He's so used to taking care of large groups of people that he doesn't know how to deal with a single individual, and I'm sure the fact that pretty much his whole 'family' is dead doesn't help.

In this case, if no one figured this out, the Kaoins, Tseng's birth family, are cousins to the Kisaragi line—everyone should know what became of them (at best, he's completely estranged from Tseng, so no, he doesn't count as 'active' family). His only other known family were his wife, who died when Yufi was young (around 4-5 is my guess), and Yufi herself. With the war happening when his wife passed, he focused on that and completely lost touch with his last surviving family, his daughter.

(3) Think of this as similar to what Alexander in FFIX (the one with Zidane—the monkey-boy/Genome and Princess Garnet) does when Alexandria is attacked by Kuja and the Invincible (airship), but on a smaller scale because this Alexander is much smaller, even at its large size—kneeling, it's about 20 feet tall, which is much smaller than the whole of Alexandria Castle.


	81. 79-Stowaway

**A/N:** So, this is the last chapter of Catalyst Array, and from here, it splits into two paths. And there's a new note there now, as two paths has apparently become three! More on that is at the end of the chapter, past the chapter notes and in all bold. Thanks to all my readers for seeing me through part 1!

Also, I don't think I described many of the Summons in the course of Catalyst Array, but since only one person asked about Sylph (it actually ended up being that I had misspelled it, and that's been corrected!), I'll just say here that most will be described later (in the part 2's).

Stowaway

Reaching into his pocket, Eden pulled out his PHS, then sighed as he tried to decide if he was ready to call Tseng or not. The man's name and number were on the screen as he thought, but finally, he put the call through and held the device to his ear as he waited for an answer. If Tseng had yelled when the blond _hadn't_ answered his phone, what would he do when Eden _did_? Well, he was about to find out.

After two rings, the man answered it with, "You had better be the one on the line this time, Eden." His voice was oddly sharp.

"Yes, I'm the one calling. I hear you were yelling in Wutain, and that you really unsettled Felicia by scolding her, though," Eden chuckled, trying to make it a joke and less serious than people were making it. After all, the only thing he'd suffered was some exhaustion.

There was a thump on the other end of the line before Tseng said, "I'm not in the mood to joke with you. What I need is to get your report and your assessment."

"I had been expecting to deal with the Wutain case while looking for Fuhito, but on the day the Wutain case came to a head, Fuhito turned up there, having apparently been working with them in some capacity since he left Corel. El—er, she's being called Felicia now—got in the way and was hit by a laser weapon, and Cure spells don't work on those. Not well, at any rate, at the moment. The result was that I saw red and apparently activated a Limit Break which—well, it let the Zirconaide shards activate their Limit Break through me. The result summoned all my slotted Summons at once, but it drained me dry to do it. They healed her and attacked Fuhito, but the Ravens got in the way, so the bastard got away again while the Summons killed his most recent round of Ravens." He heard Tseng sigh, so added, "And it gets worse."

"Worse? Damn, Eden, I hate it when you say those words," the man replied as he heaved a truly heart-felt sigh. "Okay, what's gone wrong _now_?"

"Fuhito knows how to use primitive arrays to make the Ravens, and probably all the ones the criminals in the Wutain case were using to destroy things and hurt or kill people. He's also got some sort of shadow attached to him which makes him very, very hard to kill, but we don't know the extent of it or its abilities."

"...Lovely...Anything else?"

"Do you _want_ something else to be wrong? I mean, besides the fact that he's got the scientific mind and sheer carelessness to actually work on modifying and advancing the arrays, and the desire to do so?"

For over a minute, Tseng was quiet, but then the Wutain man finally said, "Fine, I'll pass word on to all Shinra personnel that he's at the top of our list, extremely dangerous and unpredictable, armed, and not working alone. I'll also warn them not to confront him alone or in a small group unless they were specifically chosen to set up a sting and therefor have advanced planning in place. He's well past the point of being someone any of us can go after for a bit of spur-of-the-moment heroics—that includes you, Eden. I want you to head back here and take a bit of a break as soon as Elf—Felicia can arrange a trip back here."

"I'm not sure that'll be a problem since Angeal and Zack know I'm here and are actually at the Palace to talk with the Emperor right now."

"...How did _that_ happen?"

"The Emperor, Felicia, one of the Crescent Unit Captains, and I had a very interesting discussion about how to end the war and still allow the Emperor to retain enough of his power to take care of his people. The result was an offer he sent to the President which included allowing Shinra to put a Mako Reactor near the Materia Mine, building a resort town for people to visit, and him taking an Executive position under the President. I don't know all the details of what he wrote or how he wrote it, but the President was interested enough to tell Angeal to talk with him about details."

A silence followed the words, then Tseng chuckled for several long moments before he said, "I don't believe you did that. I wasn't even aware you were going to be meeting with the Emperor to have held a discussion like that with him, but—that's actually a very interesting twist to the situation, and will help greatly going forward. Is there anything else you haven't reported to me yet?"

"Er...I have a feeling the Princess is going to be coming back to Shinra with us, with or without an agreement between the Emperor and the President..." Eden sighed, remembering how upset she'd been over her father apparently not caring that she'd been stealing.

"...So, how did _that_ happen?"

"Broken record much?" Eden asked impishly.

"Don't be a brat, Eden. If you don't like me asking the same question, don't give me data which requires the same question to clarify," Tseng answered irritably.

"Fine. In short, I actually cared what she did and disciplined her for stealing, but when her father basically gave her a flat reaction, something clicked in her mind saying his lack of response didn't show any caring at all. Even though she didn't like being disciplined, she managed to work her mind around the fact that a Turk, of all people, had more interest in her well-being and in teaching her right and wrong than her own father. So yeah, she's basically now associating the Turks with people who will give her real rules and discipline, and with people who will care that she abides by the rules. I have no idea how she'll take the rest of Shinra, though...but the fact that she doesn't have an assigned guard means we'll have to assign her one."

"Well...What kind of energy level and behavioral pattern does she have—besides petty crime?"

"High energy, complete lack of discipline in general combined with real skill in combat—she'll need sparring partners too, skilled ones—an absolute belief that she can go where she wants, when she wants, with whoever she wants and anyone who might worry about her can be damned. At the same time, she's generally happy, but she gives herself airs and is actually strangely easy to get along with. She's curious as a kitten, but apparently keeps her mouth shut about most of what she hears and sees of her own accord—Felicia can validate that fact. That about covers what I know."

"Hmm...I'll have to think about the situation and start working out some details quietly. In the meantime, let me know when you're on your way back, with who, and under what circumstances."

"Will do, thanks."

"We're done now until you're heading back?"

"We are. Later, then."

Eden hung up the phone, feeling happy with the results of the discussion, even though he knew he was probably going to get something more than that from Tseng when he got back to Shinra. Until then, he had other things to worry about, like Angeal and Godo's plans and what to do with Yufi, who rarely left him alone...

CA

As it turned out, President Shinra liked the offer from Godo more and more the more he heard about it, so sent Sephiroth to deliver the actual paperwork to the Emperor ending the war, drawing Wutai into Shinra's fold, and making Godo one of the Executives of the Company. While it turned out the President didn't actually care about having a Reactor in Wutai, just access to the Mine and a resort town, plans were put into place to have a Reactor built there at an unspecified 'later date if necessary'. The President also decided to put into place the general ability to have some of his own people—Turks, SOLDIERs, and Infantry—search for the remains of the AVALANCHE terrorist cell in Wutain territory, and Godo let him, knowing the facilities Gaia's Refuge now used were separate from those.

In the end, Godo was taking over the new Travel and Entertainment Department, with some deliberate crossover with Reeve so the two could help build and take care of infrastructure and city planning. While the Emperor would sometimes have to go to Shinra Headquarters for a meeting, he would largely not be expected to go anywhere but on occasional trips to other tourist locations, like Costa del Sol and Icicle Inn, to make sure they were functioning smoothly. In that regard, Shinra technology had the benefit of distance communication, and Wutai was actually an ideal location to provide supplies and support to the other resort locations around the Planet.

The whole process took only about three days after Eden was allowed to return to his own room at the Palace, which was only the day after he'd talked to Tseng. In that time, he'd managed to pass on Tseng's message, which caused the Emperor mixed sadness and amusement, but he accepted the words and didn't give a reply beyond that. Somehow, Eden felt the whole process was a form of closure and a final severing of the ties between Tseng and Wutai, and it was also the Emperor's way of laying to rest the people he had once cared about and lost in such a horrible way.

Finally, on the third day after he'd returned to his own room in the Palace, all of them—a rather irritated Sephiroth, an almost permanently bemused Angeal, a hyper-as-ever Zack, a calm and somewhat curious Felicia, and himself, along with a few other random people and the Shinra troops—were due to be leaving Wutai. As Sephiroth had come on board a new, state-of-the-art 'airship' called the Highwind so most of the Shinra troops could also be transported home, that was to be their mode of transportation, regardless of how they had arrived in Wutai.

In that time, right up to the moment they were getting on the Highwind, he hadn't gotten a definitive answer from Yufi, so thought she'd changed her mind in the end and decided to stay in Wutai. Really, he wouldn't have minded that, either, but something told him not to call Tseng until they were well on their way back to Shinra—the girl had a habit of doing things last-minute. In the meantime, it was his first trip on board an airship, so he was curious and decided to explore it for awhile. While he might have liked to see the—deck? Bridge? Cockpit?—after learning to pilot a chopper, he heard the Captain cursing up a storm so quickly decided it wasn't worth the visit.

When he was looking around the cargo bay, which even had stables for Chocobos, he heard a pained groan and found his way to an open space behind a crate of goods—and saw Yufi curled up there, looking miserable and ill.

Rubbing the back of his head for a minute, Eden decided his best option was to call Angeal, so pulled out his PHS and waited for the man to answer. When he did, the Turk asked, "Do you have anything to cure motion sickness?"

"Cure motion sickness? You don't sound ill."

"Yufi followed us, and she's got a pretty serious case of motion sickness."

The other man sighed in mixed exasperation and amusement, then said, "I'll send the Puppy to you—" (An indignant 'Hey!' sounded in the background right then.) "—with a tranquilizer. I don't think it'll take away the problem entirely if it's that bad, but it'll help. Where are you?"

"The cargo bay," the Turk answered, sitting beside Yufi to wait. "Thanks." He then hung up and regarded the groaning girl. After a moment, he asked, "So why didn't you tell us you had decided to come along anyway?"

"Didn't...urk...have time..." she muttered. "Sorry..."

"...Why didn't you have time?" he asked, suddenly feeling tired.

She gave a small chuckle and pulled a red orb from in her shirt—a Summon Materia—which she offered weakly to the Turk. He took it and blinked as it told him its name was Leviathan.

His eyes closed for a moment before he said one word: "Explain."

"My father's...urk...Summon as Emperor...urk...The one from your match," she slowly explained. "Huu...Maybe now he'll care...urk...that I stole things..."

Holding a hand to his head, Eden just sighed and said, "Well, we can't do anything now, so we won't be able to return it until we land."

"Eden!" Zack yelled right then from out in the middle of the cargo bay before Yufi could retort.

"Over near the doors on the right!" the blond Turk called back. A minute later, Zack found his way to them and offered him a needle with a pale pink, transparent liquid in it. "Thanks," Eden replied, then took Yufi's arm to apply the needle. She began relaxing and stopped moaning, so he asked, "Feeling better now?"

She gave a nod and answered, "It's not entirely gone, but now it's not nearly so bad. Thanks. But do I _really have_ to give it back?"

"Yufi, what did I say about stealing?" the Turk asked tiredly, making Zack stare in shock at the pair.

"Not to do it because it's wrong," the girl pouted. "But he doesn't care. He probably won't even say _it's_ missing, let alone that _I_ am."

"What your father will or won't do has no bearing on how right or wrong stealing is, so you have to understand— _stealing_ is wrong. You're not justified in taking something which belongs to your father just because you _think_ he won't care." (1) The Princess sighed, so Eden looked at the orb he held, then up at Zack and asked, "How long does it take you to Master them?"

"Depends," Zack answered with a grin. "Weak ones are around one hour, mid-range ones about two hours, strong ones can range between three and four if it's starting at nothing now. Less if it already has some growth. Those are a lot of the special ones and most of the Summons I've handled, but there aren't many of the latter. It depends on how much the total experience it needs is. Why?"

Offering the Summon Materia to the other sixteen-year-old, the blond said, "Master that. We'll return the original to Godo as a Mastered form as an apology for Yufi stealing it. Of course, we'll keep the new one it produces by reaching Mastered level."

At Eden's smirk, Zack laughed and took the orb, and Yufi lifted her head to stare at them in amazement. "But stealing is wrong! You just said so!"

" _I'm_ not stealing anything," the Turk replied, watching Zack hold the orb loosely in his hand, eyes closed as it began glowing in a shifting, rotating, red light. " _You_ stole the original, but Zack's energy is going to Master it, making the baby ours legitimately, and the plan is to return the original to him, so on my side, no theft is taking place."

In spite of herself and her motion sickness, the girl had to chuckle at that. "Sorry for not telling you sooner..."

Eden shrugged and pulled out his PHS again, that time dialing Tseng's number. "So, what's the verdict?" the Wutain man asked immediately upon answering.

"The Princess effectively decided to stow away, so she's coming with us back to Shinra. We're on board the Highwind, returning with Sephiroth and most of the Shinra troops, and probably left Wutai half an hour ago. Also, apparently Felicia has a meeting with Reeve to attend, so she's returning with us, and I gather he's meeting her at the landing platform. Anything else you need to know?"

"No, that's fine. We'll be ready—and Rufus is apparently meeting Reeve and Felicia at the landing platform, so he's openly showing the link he has to Gaia's Refuge and negating our need to hide it. That's one more problem resolved."

"How goes the case you needed Genesis' help with?"

"Strangely. Depending on how things go in the next little while, I may get the two of you to go over it again before I reassign you to Rufus, so I'm anticipating about five days before then, also to give you time to rest."

"I've been resting since the Wutain case was closed, Tseng," the blond sighed.

"I'm not going to be as careless as I was before, Eden. You're going to relax for a few days around helping Genesis," the man replied adamantly.

"...Fine..."

"If that's all now, I'll see you when the Highwind returns," Tseng said pointedly.

"Right, see you then," the younger Turk agreed, and they both hung up.

"I'm going to be putting more than half on it," Zack commented in an absent tone as Eden put his phone in his pocket. "You may as well wander away and do your own thing, since I'll be here for an hour still."

"...It's still really amazing that you can do something so energy-intensive at all," the blond said wryly, and the black haired teen grinned. "What are you, a battery pack?"

Zack actually laughed and replied, "I'm starting to wonder about that, too, since I still haven't hit a limit, or even a plateau. Well, maybe I have now, but it's mostly time-based limits for the amount of hours in a day, not how much energy I can donate. I think."

"Really? Huh..." Ed blinked thoughtfully. His gaze then moved to Yufi as he asked, "Do you think you're up to having a look around, or at least moving to a more comfortable place you can lay down?"

She made a face and answered, "Maybe if it's close, but not much. I hate this—I've never felt this bad before." The nine-year-old sighed and dropped her head back to her knees.

In response, the blond pushed himself up, then reached down to lift the smaller girl in both arms. The action produced a yelp from her and a chuckle from Zack, but he ignored them both and headed out of the cargo bay so he could take her to one of the small, private bunk rooms he'd found earlier. The room wasn't big—three feet of walking space to the door side of a bunk which was only about that wide—but it would be more comfortable for her than the cargo bay floor. As such, he put her down on the bunk, tucked her in, shut the curtain, and went back to the door.

Pausing, he said, "I'll come back to get you when we land. In the meantime, just rest here."

"Thanks..." she murmured sleepily.

He smiled slightly and stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind him, only for Sephiroth to ask him from a few feet down the hall, "How do you _stand_ people like her and Rufus Shinra just haring off without telling you?"

Looking at him, the Turk could see how irritated and agitated he looked (which was pretty rare for Sephiroth), so shrugged and said, "Actually, we already pretty much knew she was going to be coming with us, I just wasn't expecting her to hijack her father's Summon when she did. As for tolerating them—spanking, or the threat of it, works wonders on their behavior."

For a moment, Sephiroth went so still he forgot to breathe. He then gasped in a breath and asked, "Spanking?"

"Yup. Though, I only ever had to threaten Rufus—I actually spanked Yufi for stealing. You saw the result with Rufus in that he started behaving when he realized I was serious. Did you really think you'd be able to do anything with them without acting essentially like a parent and disciplinarian?" Eden asked in amusement.

After another completely still moment, the older man burst out laughing so hard tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. Eden just shook his head, lips twitching a bit into a small smile, and turned to go back to the last room he'd seen Felicia in. When Sephiroth got his bearings back, he followed, still chuckling as he did, and Eden was quite happy to let the man have his laugh—he was too serious by far. The laughter would do him good and release some stress he obviously needed to release. He also felt privileged to be allowed to see so much emotion from the man, as even the laughter from when they'd been at the SOLDIER Cadet test hadn't been much more than a chuckle.

At the room where Felicia was, they'd been joined by a man in his twenties who had short, blond hair, blue eyes, blue mechanic's clothes, and a cigarette in his mouth. "Yo," the man said as he saw Eden. "Not often I get Turks on board—you lot usually use your exclusive choppers. The name's Cid Highwind, from the newly-dubbed Rocket Town (2). What were you doin' over in Wutai if the General and Commander insist they didn't even know you were there until they were sent to the capital?"

"I was hunting for a top-priority criminal who happens to be a slippery little son of a bitch," Eden replied with a scowl.

"Don't swear. Especially not if Yufi's with you," Felicia said absently as she worked on something on a device in her lap.

"She's sleeping in one of the cabins," the Turk replied dryly, and the woman looked up, needing a minute to focus her eyes on him.

"So she _did_ slip in after us," the woman sighed, then went back to her work.

"She did. It doesn't change what Fuhito is," the blond snorted.

"You're still not going to talk like that in front of her," Felicia replied evenly.

"I fail to see how you will actually stop him," Sephiroth commented from just behind the sixteen-year-old Turk, back to his normal seriousness.

Her gaze went up to Sephiroth's as she said, "You don't even know who I am, so what makes you think I couldn't take his head off?"

"And if you did, Tseng and Genesis would take yours," Eden replied with a laugh. "As for Yufi, I sincerely doubt you're going to be able to keep her away from it."

"Hey, hold on a second, did you just say I've got a stowaway?" Cid scowled. "That little—"

"She's legal and expected. She just has a bad habit of not properly informing people of what she's doing, when," Felicia waved the man off.

"Except for the fact that she stole Leviathan from her father, hence the reason she didn't tell us," Eden put in.

"Oh, for—!" the woman scowled that time, looking up at Eden. "Where is that brat and Leviathan?"

"Zack has Leviathan so he can Master it, and we'll return the original Mastered one to Godo, but keep the baby to Master more," the blond teen answered impishly. "And you're not bothering Yufi—she's miserable enough with motion sickness."

"It takes time to Master Materia, especially a Summon as powerful as Leviathan!" she gasped.

"Not for Zack," Sephiroth answered, going to one window to look out. "His current record is to Master Alexander twice and Long Range Attack four times, all on the same night. He averages about one from baby to Mastered in two hours. If it has already grown some, it goes faster. How long did he say for Leviathan, Eden?"

"A little over an hour, since it wasn't quite at half-way," the Turk answered in amusement. "I think we should start calling him 'Mr. Battery' instead of 'Puppy', though."

"Good grief..." Felicia sighed as Cid's jaw dropped and his cigarette hit the floor, making everyone suddenly thankful the floors were all metal. "Is that unique to him, or can other SOLDIERs do it, too?"

"It is unique to Zack," Sephiroth replied surely over his shoulder.

"Thank the Goddess..." the woman muttered before going back to work.

The rest of the trip back to Midgar was quiet and uneventful, much to everyone's relief, as they all knew the serious work would begin again once they got there.

 **Notes:**

(1) Eden never specified a particular discipline she would always get, partly because he doesn't plan on being her disciplinarian forever, and partly because he's likely to switch the exact method of discipline he'll use. In this case, with how sick she is, I don't think I'd be especially likely to trust someone spanking a kid who's on the verge of throwing up. Her main 'discipline' is having the Materia she stole being taken away and returned to her father, and the fact that she isn't supposed to be getting her hands on any of the subsequent copies Zack produces.

(2) There's this distinct impression I get with Rocket Town that it hasn't actually been there, or been called such, until they started building the rocket there. First attempts at space-worthy rockets take years to develop, and in this case, that would be assuming they started building it sometime in 1999 or early 0000, allowing Rocket Town to be known by that name by the time Eden arrived on Gaia in July of 0000. So yes, 'Rocket Town' is a new town, and earned its name because of said rocket.

 **End of Part 1, Catalyst Array!**

 **Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading! I hope I'll be seeing you again in Part 2, Salvation's Hands (Also called SH, the "many Amestrians" path of Part 2, where they stay on Gaia)** **and/or Fates of Worlds (also called FoW, no Amestrians except Ed, and everyone eventually ends up on Spira—the FFX/X-2 world)! Update days for both are still Tuesday, so a minimum of one chapter for each SH and FoW will be posted that day from now until SH finishes, then it'll only be FoW until that's done. I'll still randomly choose to post two chapters for either or both paths on any given day. Both are still in progress as of now!  
**

 **There's also a THIRD PATH in the works, which I'm going to be naming Fates of Worlds—Dimensions (also called FoWD)! In this one, Ed will be dimension-hopping to other variants of FFVII Gaia, but the story will focus on the one he's 'currently in', which would theoretically be the final dimension. There will only be one unexpected Amestrian in it (no, not Al or any of the ones who appear in SH). The fastest way to it is to read FoW up to the end of Chapter 33, then switch to FoWD if it's being posted by then. The posting date hasn't been decided yet, only that it will only start being posted AFTER SH is finished.  
**

 **You're free to read any or all three paths (obviously), and the best view of my world scenario is actually by reading all three! It's not necessary, though, so feel free to take your pick of them. FoWD can also be read from the end of SH, with the realization that while key events are the same, how they turned out in SH is quite different—and much better—than how they turned out in the first 33 chapters of FoW.**


End file.
